


The Witch, the Wizard, and the Magic of Pegasus

by itscoco



Series: Chronicles of Galadia [3]
Category: Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (2005), Minecraft (Video Game), aphmau - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen, Magic, Magical quest, Minecraft Diaries - Aphmau, Minecraft MyStreet - Aphmau, Witches and Wizards, book 3 of 4, fairytale AU, this one's based on a barbie movie i guess, with SHIPPING
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28176591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itscoco/pseuds/itscoco
Summary: She looked down, checking to see if the castle was somehow being supported by some very, very tall structure. But no, it seemed to be nestled securely on the clouds of its own accord, safe high above the entire surface world.“Welcome to the north witch’s guild,” Teony said. Nana looked at her, then back at the castle. Witches.~~And here we are, book 3 of the Chronicles of Galadia series!! This story's probably a little less well-known but if you grew up watching barbie movies you probably remember magic of pegasus. This time we follow Kawaii-Chan (Nana), a meif'wa princess on a quest to save her family and build the legendary wand of light. She might or might not run into a certain emo wizard along the way. With a three day time limit, tensions are high, but she's got magic, determination, and a flying horse friend.
Relationships: Kawaii~Chan/Zane Ro'Meave
Series: Chronicles of Galadia [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062698
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE!!: This is book 3 in the Chronicles of Galadia, which will eventually be a series of 4. I recommend reading The Sleeping Prince and then Snow White and the 7 Werewolves first, in that order. It's not completely necessary, however, if you just really want to read this one first. This story chronologically takes place about a year and a half after those two, and exists in the same universe. Enjoy!!

~

There was once a land filled with witches, wizards, kingdoms, and magic.

Just like any other land, this one was filled with a rich history, colored very much by the magic it possessed and those who knew how to use it. In some cases, it was used for good, bringing peace and prosperity to kingdoms and villages across the world. In other cases, it was the source of corruption, bringing those with cruel hearts deeper into their own dark ambitions. Anger, hatred, selfishness, fear- all these things can twist one’s heart, and can turn the brilliant gifts they possess into a danger.

But there are some who still bring hope to those who need it.

And while there are those who devote their whole lives to seeking out power in hopes of claiming it as their own, regardless of how dubious their intentions are, magic has sometimes been known to have a mind of its own. Some search their whole lives. And some are born with it.

These lucky- or unlucky- souls do no seeking on their own part, and yet the gifts still find their way to whomever they choose. Witches and wizards can be anyone, walking among the rest of the world as commoners or otherwise. They can be poor. They can be noble. And though it is rare, on some occasions one can even be born into a royal family. 

And so this is where our story begins. Across the grass planes, past the twin kingdoms and the ruins of ancient castles past, past the small kingdom nestled deep in the woods, and the cottage- there was a corner of the world covered in snowy mountains, the air crisp, the rivers frozen more often than not. This kingdom was home to the meif’wa people, a world all their own, separate and far away from the rest of the land.

And what happened the day of Princess Nana’s 18th birthday.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


~

The clouds over the kingdom had finally cleared from nearly a weeks’ worth of snowstorms, leaving behind a crystal clear blue sky and a blanket of sparkling white over everything.

The snow decorated the grand castle lodged into the side of the peaks, icicles dripping off the sides of the marbled green roofs and shining bright in the cold winter sun, illuminating the flag waving over the palace. The insignia of the kingdom- a golden pegasus against dark green and purple- flew gracefully in the air.

Outside the palace and further down the river, the townspeople roamed around the square, some of the children already out on the frozen water. While they skated around together, the adults worked together to set up for the celebration that night. It was a birthday of one of the members of the royal family, and though hardly anyone in the village could keep up with which of the twelve young princes and princesses it was, the village was always prepared to find a reason to celebrate.

Within the palace walls, however, the mood was a bit quieter. The halls that afternoon were mostly empty, natural light streaming in from the snow-covered mountains outside.

One young woman with long, streaming pink hair and two black cat ears walked up the large central staircase, her footsteps echoing through the otherwise silent castle. In her hands was a small wrapped gift.

Princess Nila, oldest daughter of the King and Queen of the northern mountains, headed gracefully up the grand staircase in the direction of the west wing of bedrooms, her head held dutifully high and her posture perfect. This type of regal grace was unmistakable for any member of the royal family. The Ashidas were proud, organized, and polite. And all twelve children reflected that.

Her heels still  _ click-click-click _ ing down the corridor, the princess turned a corner, entering through one of many marbled stone entryways into a large bedroom, not unlike the several bedrooms around it. Her face stretched into a smile as she searched the room, her eyes scanning the empty bed and chairs all around.

“Nana?” she called, coming to a pause in the center of the room. The smile faltered slightly as she turned, making a full circle as she looked around the room.

There was no sign of her sister anywhere in the quarters. Nila’s expression soon twisted into a more fearful one, still hastily moving around the room to look for her younger sister. She dropped the package on the floor, and it lay there forgotten as she ran.

“Nana!” she called again, this time more urgent. She raced to the doors leading to the balcony, looking out over the frozen river below. From there, the only thing she could see were the village people at a distance.

Panic beginning to set in, Nila raced to a large cord hanging from the ceiling just outside the room. She grabbed it, tugging down. A bell tolling rang out throughout the palace walls. 

The quiet and serene atmosphere that had been present before began to crumble, guards and staff running through the halls and yelling to each other. All around Nila, pink-haired meif’wa children came out of their rooms, looking around at the commotion. In the grand hall, palace guards were scrambling to receive their orders.

“A princess is missing!”

“Princess Nana is missing!”

“We must find the princess!”

The king, a somewhat short man with identical black cat ears to those of his children, emerged into the chaos, looking around as the palace guard hurried around him.

“Again?” he said in bewilderment, watching them.

~

Far away from the palace, hidden up in the mountains on the frozen streams near the forest, the missing princess Nana ice-skated like the wind.

Her long, pale pink hair was braided loosely down her back. She wore her favorite deep purple tunic with beige pants, perfect for skating. Her black cat ears whistled in the wind. Her bright amber eyes were locked on the ice before her.

It was days like this- clear sky, only a bit of a breeze, the birds out chirping in the bare tree branches- that Nana loved. It was days like these that she couldn’t stand being shut up in the palace, despite what the people in charge of her always insisted.

These days were for her.

So she was going to take them.

Nana leapt over a break in the ice, twisting in midair and landing backwards back on the frozen stream, zooming across it backwards. Her balance didn’t falter, years of practice and experience keeping her legs moving rhythmically one after the other, back and forth. She came across another turn, and swung herself around in a large semi-circle, throwing in one last spin at the end of it and coming back to facing forward. She began to pick up speed, swinging her arms and making larger steps with her feet.

Though all her siblings could skate, at least a little, none of them made it a point to sneak out every so often to do it like Nana did. Not all of them would necessarily be able to get away with it, either. Nana was the seventh-born child in the royal Ashida family, nowhere near her older siblings, too old to attract as much attention as her younger siblings. In fact, today was her 18th birthday- and she could hardly be expected to spend it locked in her room.

It was always beyond her why that rule was in place to begin with. She, along with her eleven brothers and sisters, were expected to stay in the palace at all times unless they had their parents permission or a good number of guards to watch them. From what she could tell, this rule didn’t exist before she was born. But for as long as she could remember, she had always had to implement a certain amount of stealth to get out of the castle.

And that was often.

She came over the crest of a hill, shooting down the other side. She leaned forward and bent her knees, cutting through the freezing winter air with a smile on her face. She had learned very early on that sneaking out to skate in the mountains outside the palace was an excellent way to escape from how she felt around her family, a way to release the stress that often built up from simply being a real princess in a real kingdom.

She always felt trapped. Trapped by expectations, trapped by her siblings and her parents just wanting her to be normal, like them. Trapped by the pressure to blend in.

She couldn’t live like that.

So she found ways to escape from it.

Up ahead, she caught sight of a large dropoff, a spot where the ice fell down into icicles that reached down to the frozen lake below. In warmer weather it might have been a waterfall, but the freezing air had turned it into a sparkling icy cliffside.

Nana braced herself, continuing to shoot purposefully towards it.

The second she reached the edge, she launched herself into the air, bringing her legs together so that the tips of the blades on her skates tapped each other. She spun through the air, bringing her arms closer and folding them over her chest.

If anyone at all was ever around to witness this move, they might have maybe noticed she stayed airborne for just a little longer, or maybe that she had somehow gone a little higher than what seemed possible. Someone might have wondered how she seemed to genuinely float on the wind itself, or how gravity seemed to simply vanish for a moment.

Someone else might have wondered that. Nana, of course, was more focused on sticking the landing. 

She twisted, spinning once, twice, and three times before finally bringing her feet down hard on the ice, landing squarely on one skate and bringing the other one out behind her to keep balance. When she landed, shards of ice and snow shot into the air around her ankles, and she skidded across the frozen pond, holding her arms out carefully on either side.

Her mouth stretched into a grin as she glided backwards, her breath coming out in little foggy puffs.

And then her foot hit something small and furry and she toppled backwards.

Completely unable to regain her balance, she landed on her butt, yelling as she slid backwards into a snowbank. Some of it slid right off, landing in a fluffy wet mess on her head. She brushed as much of it off as she could, flipping her braid out of the way to see what she had tripped over.

Whatever it was must have also been sent across the ice, because there was another pile of snow on the other side of the ice with a moving lump in the center of it. Coming from this lump were muffled barks.

Her interest peaked, Nana pushed herself back onto her feet, her eyes on the snow.

The head of a husky puppy finally popped out, yipping. 

Nana gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth and skating across the ice towards it. The puppy energetically bucked around like a horse, freeing itself from the snow and yapping. Nana came to a stop in front of her, leaning down and pulling her out.

The husky puppy immediately went straight to licking every inch of Nana’s face, its legs still dangling in the air, but tail wagging wildly. Nana laughed, using a free hand to brush some snow off her fur.

“Hey, hey!” she giggled, holding the puppy with both arms. “What in the world are you doing all the way out here?” 

The husky continued frantically attempting to lick her face, and she held her down by scratching her ears. Nana scanned the horizon, squinting against the bright snow and looking around at all the trees in hopes of seeing some sort of sign of the puppy’s family. From what she could see, though, there were only the same bluebirds and robins that had been flying around since she got there.

She frowned, looking back down at the puppy. “Where’s your family?” she asked. The puppy, tongue sticking out, tilted its head at her curiously.

She rubbed her fur, giving the area one last look. Nothing.

“Did you get lost?” she finally asked, looking back at the puppy’s bright winter-blue eyes. She tilted her head the other direction, staring up at Nana.

Something in her heart melted, and she lifted the puppy to her face, grinning as they rubbed noses. “Oh, you’re  _ precious _ ,” she squealed, squeezing her eyes closed as the dog continued to lick like crazy. “I wanna take you back home with me. We can be forgotten together, huh? Does that sound fun? Do you wanna come back to my house?”

The dog yipped again, squirming around in her arms in an attempt to lick her whole head. Nana laughed, struggling to keep a grip on her. She never understood her family’s aversion to pets, or really animals in general. She’d heard of plenty of other royal families keeping horses, or hunting dogs of some kind. She’d even heard of some that kept exotic pets, like birds or even elephants. Nana could only ever dream of being that eccentric. For as long as she could remember, she’d had to work hard to bury pieces of her personality, being scolded for being too loud, too enthusiastic, or even too colorful. What Nana found to be an expression of her personality her parents often found to be lack of dignity.

Instead of completely snuffing out that side of her identity, however, it taught her to be careful how and where she showed it.

And usually that was completely alone up in the mountains.

Nana looked into the husky puppy’s eyes, furrowing her brows as she thought for a moment. The dog tilted her head back at her.

“Celestia,” Nana finally decided, holding the puppy at arm’s length to get a better look. “I think your name is Celestia.”

Celestia barked, still squirming and wagging her tail. Nana smiled, bringing her back so she could sit in her arms. “Ok Celestia,” she said, pushing off with one foot so she began to glide across the ice. “Let’s head back home.”

As the two of them made their way across the frozen streams, Nana looked up over the hills toward where she knew the castle was. Sneaking a dog into the palace might prove to be difficult… assuming anyone had even noticed she was gone in the first place.


	2. chapter 2

~

The sun had already set by the time Nana made it back to the palace, her having taken a detour on the way back to get some food in the village. With a full stomach, Celestia had fallen asleep in Nana’s arms, snoozing quietly as Nana pushed open a heavy door carefully to make her way into the grand entryway.

The lights were out, the hall empty. Nana breathed a quiet sigh of relief, trying to step lightly as she closed the door behind her. She had taken off her skates, holding them in one hand and holding Celestia with the other. The skates jingled softly as she headed towards the large staircase, the soft dim light of the chandelier shining on the polished steps.

She had hardly made her way up the first flight when she heard a soft voice behind her, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Nana?”

Out of instinct, Nana bent down quickly to put Celestia on the floor behind her before turning around to see who had spoken. Coming out of the king and queen’s wing entryway was her mother, a woman with long pink hair just like her children, but you could almost never tell due to how it was always twisted or braided up in some way that hid its length. Though it was late, she was still dressed in a gown, clearly not having gone to bed yet. Nana felt her stomach sink as her father hurried out after her, also in his day clothes.

So they  _ had  _ noticed she was out.

“Um… hi,” Nana offered, standing carefully in front of Celestia. Her parents hurried across the floor towards the stairs, looking over her for any signs of injury.

“Where have you been?” the queen demanded in a hushed tone, giving the impression that she didn’t want to alert anyone within the vicinity anything was amiss. “The guard has been looking for you all evening. We’ve  _ talked  _ about this, Nana. How many times do we have to have this conversation?”

“You don’t always notice,” Nana muttered, looking at their reflections in the polished floor. “There’s usually more preoccupying things happening with the others.”

“That doesn’t change the rules,” the king said exasperatedly, but in the same hushed tone as his wife. “You  _ can’t  _ leave the castle-”

“-without our permission!” the two of them finished together. Nana continued to avoid eye contact, hesitant to have to look at their concerned and disappointed expressions.

“I know, I’m sorry,” she said to the floor. “But… it’s my birthday, you know? I didn’t want to be stuck inside like every other day. And I knew you’d say no. And… I mean, I am 18 now. Don’t you think… I could maybe have a little more freedom?”

“Nana, please, you know the village would talk,” the queen said, turning and looking back out the door as if the village people could hear them now. “If… perhaps if you learned to take after your siblings, then maybe… it’s just that I’m afraid you’re not… quite…”

“When you learn to act less childishly you’ll be allowed out more often,” the king finally said, nodding firmly. 

Nana felt like her stomach was dissolving. “But- but I’ve been trying so hard!” she said, looking back and forth at both of them. “I  _ have  _ been! I don’t get over-excited at events, I only bake what the kitchen staff allows me to, I dress how you want me to and talk like you want me to-”

“But there’s always still-” her mother began, then faltered.

“Still what?” Nana asked, pleading.

Neither of her parents responded, looking at each other in what appeared to be a silent conversation. Nana felt the despair inside of her shift into an all-too-familiar frustration. This wasn’t the first time they’d acted like this, like they had some secret between the two of them they refused to let her in on. Even though it seemed to be about her.

“It’s just very important to us that our children represent the dignity of our kingdom,” the queen finally said, sighing. “They’ll wonder what we’re really  _ up  _ to around here if they discover one of the princesses has been sneaking out and running wild up in the mountains, obsessing over gossip from other kingdoms about marriages and coming up with childish stories-”

“They’re not childish,” Nana muttered again, under her breath. “Romance is serious business.”

“Precisely what I mean,” the king said, shaking his head. “There are far more sensible topics to inform yourself on. Perhaps you could become a political advisor, like San. Or Lilani. She’s become quite the expert in high-end event planning around the palace, it suits her so well. But these days you’re more interested in… well,  _ cute  _ things.”

Before Nana could even open her mouth to protest, Celestia chose that exact moment to bark, coming around Nana’s legs to look at her parents. They both made loud exclamations of surprise and jumped back, completely forgetting their attempt to stay quiet before. Nana bent down quickly to pick her up, holding her as she stretched out in an attempt to sniff the queen and king. 

“You brought back a  _ dog _ ?” the queen gasped, still holding her arms over herself protectively. Nana looked down at Celestia sheepishly, the puppy looking back up at her with an unmistakable dog grin. 

“Where did you even find that?” the king asked, leaning in and looking at her. He jumped back again when she shot forward in an attempt to lick him.

“She really found me,” Nana admitted, petting the top of her head. “She’s harmless. Really. And I’ll take care of her myself so nobody else has to worry about it. That’s responsible and practical, right?”

Still holding a hand over her heart, the queen looked at the king, who crossed his arms and shifted weight, thinking through a response.

“Dogs are so rambunctious,” the queen answered for him. “It’ll cause an uproar in the palace. I don’t think we can handle that kind of unruliness.”

“You dealt with me for 18 years, didn’t you?” Nana said, putting Celestia down and letting her run off towards the bedrooms.

“Nana-”

“I don’t know how much longer I can live like this,” she said quickly and firmly, straightening back up. “I’m not training to take over the kingdom. I’m nowhere near inheriting the crown. People can’t even keep up with which one I am most of the time. I feel so  _ invisible _ .”

“Nana, where is this coming from-?”

“I’m sorry I’m not like my brothers and sisters, but I can’t pretend to be them anymore!” she continued, feeling like someone had turned on a tap and it was all coming out. “Do you really want me to spend the rest of my life inside these walls learning to  _ calm down _ ?”

“Yes!” her parents exclaimed together, clearly excited to have finally found something they appeared to have a mutual understanding of.

“But  _ why _ ?” she said, unable to hide the note of whining in her voice. “If people don’t know who I am why do I have to represent the royal family?”

“People  _ do  _ know who you are,” the queen sighed, shaking her head and looking at the floor. “And as long as they do you have to set an example.”

“Which means no more skating,” the king said, holding out a hand expectantly.

Nana felt glued to the spot, her skates still dangling from her hand. Her one escape. The only window she had outside the palace.

“I can’t bake, I can’t dress how I want, I can’t read what I want, and now you’re going to take this from me too?” she whispered, holding the skates away. Her father glared sternly, still holding out his hand.

Feeling tears beginning to well up, Nana thrust the skates into her father’s hand and turned, storming away.

“We’re doing this to help you, Nana,” her mother called after her. “It’s just until you can learn to be less… shallow.”

Nana stopped in her tracks, feeling as if she had just slammed into something hard.

Then, the tears began to spill over, and she took off down the hallway, running towards her room.

~

A few hours passed. Nana had moved all around her room in an attempt to find SOMETHING to do. All it resulted in was sitting on the floor in front of her bed, watching Celestia play in her closet.

She leaned her head against the foot of the bed, looking up at the paintings of clouds on the ceiling that she had done herself. None of her other siblings had painted their ceilings.

She loved her brothers and sisters, she really did. She had grown up playing with them and they all had characteristics that she admired. She’d grown jealous of some of them, even. Musical talent, the ability to use words in very convincing and charismatic ways, diplomacy like nothing she’d ever seen. And they loved her too.

But that didn’t stop them from rolling their eyes at the way she obsessed over couples out in the streets, or scoffing when she told them about how much she loved the horse riding trip they’d gone on that they all hated. She was hard to miss around them, standing out in her usual selections of bright pinks when they usually elected to wear darker, more serious colors. She knew her sisters were often uncomfortable with how “girly” she really could be sometimes. But it was never hurting anyone, so Nana could never see the issue with it.

She’d never really stopped to think before that when they called what she liked stupid, they might have more meant that they thought  _ she  _ was.

It was really not turning out to be one of her better birthdays.

Celestia had found Nana’s jewelry chest. She watched as the husky puppy flopped full-body into the shining jewels, rolling around in the necklaces and treating hair clips like chew toys. She couldn’t help but crack a small smile.

“At least someone’s having fun on my birthday,” she said wistfully.

She looked up suddenly when there was a knock on her door. It cracked open slightly, and she saw Shuri, Nana’s younger sister by three years. She straightened her glasses, looking around and spotting her on the floor.

“Ah,” she said, pushing the door a bit further. She was dressed for bed, unlike their parents. “My deepest apologies, sister. I know no one would want to spend their birthday locked in their room.”

Nana buried any sort of sarcastic remarks, focusing instead on appreciation for her checking in. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Shuri’s eyes fell on Celestia, who was too busy with the shiny stuff to notice another person’s appearance. Nana didn’t miss Shuri’s nose wrinkling slightly.

“If it’s any consolation, I’m told the village is having a celebration,” she said, nodding at the balcony. “You have a view of the square from your window, don’t you? You might be able to watch.”

Nana looked in the direction of the glass doors leading out to the balcony. She thought she’d been hearing music.

“Oh,” was all she could think of to say. “Maybe I will. Thanks for letting me know.”

Shuri nodded, beginning to close the door again. “Happy birthday.”

The door clicked shut, and Nana stared at the floor for a moment. Celestia poked her head up over the side of the chest, a bracelet somehow on top of her head like a dog-sized tiara.

Nana stood, walking over to the balcony and looking through the glass down to the outline of the village below. She could see the square, and it had always been a pastime of hers growing up to spend hours out on her balcony watching the people walk around. It was pretty rare that she was ever allowed to go down into the actual village itself, but that didn’t stop her from making up stories in her head about meeting people, going to the huge festive wedding she saw, finding a handsome village boy and running away together.

She seemed to come back to that last one a lot.

Tonight, the street lanterns glowed warmly as the people flooded the sidewalks, couples and families alike taking to the frozen river and skating around in circles as a band played off to the side under a covering. From where Nana was, she could hear laughter and a joyful tune.

And there she was, unable to attend her own birthday party.

Celestia bounded across the room to sit beside her, planting her tail on the floor and looking up at Nana with her tongue hanging out. Nana stared down at her, taking in all the jewelry she had failed to shake off. She looked all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Nana bit her lip, feeling a plan form somewhat against her will. The longer she thought about it, however, the more she realized she had every right to go through with it.

Shuri was right. Why stay cooped up in your room when there was a celebration being held for you right outside?

Some deliberation, a fashion show for Celestia, and some hair re-doing later, Nana stood before the full-length mirror in her room looking over her outfit.

She had pulled up her hair into an updo complete with a fuschia ribbon, matching the elegant pink and black dress that tied at the waist and fell just above her knees. The skirt had an intricate lacy design on it that Nana had always loved, but she never had a good reason to wear it.

But tonight she did.

She looked back at the sounds of the festival below coming from her balcony, then bent down to pick up Celestia.

“Come on,” she whispered, pushing the door open. “Let’s do this before I can talk myself out of it.”

She checked both ways before entering the hallway- no signs of any night owl siblings. Everyone was asleep in their rooms.

As quietly as possible- which wasn’t too difficult considering meif’wa agility- Nana made her way back down the staircase, passing right by where she’d had the fight with her parents. She winced when she saw that there was still a vague light coming from their wing of the palace- but if she was lucky, she wouldn’t have to go too far in.

She grinned as she slowly stuck her head around the corner. Right on the other side of the wall, her skates were hanging on a hook. Clearly they hadn’t made hiding them any sort of priority.

Nana whisked them away and hurried in the direction of the doors.

In the village further down the river, people joined hands and skated in little groups all over the ice as the band played nearby.

Couples and families stood on the bridge overlooking the festivities, chatting and strolling happily as the sounds of music and celebration carried on all around them in the winter air. Children played in the snow, throwing snowballs at eachother and pushing each other out onto the ice to see how far they could slide. A small audience had formed near the alcove that the band was playing in, listening to the violins and trumpets.

For a moment, no one noticed the young woman in the pink and black dress carrying the husky puppy skate onto the scene.

Nana slid to a halt for a moment, feeling a soft smile cross her face as she watched it all. Celestia watched it too, the people and the lights reflecting in her shining blue eyes. For just a moment, Nana let her imagination get carried away, as it often did when she spent time around many other people. She was invisible and their stories wrote themselves out before her. There was a young pair of siblings, a boy and a girl, both of whom were training back home on their own instruments and watched the band play with such adoration there could be no other explanation. Nearby was an old man, watching from a distance as an old woman laughed with her friends. Potentially an old flame, or even better, a future one. A pair of newlyweds holding each other close as they skated across the ice.

Nana smiled to herself, realizing just how many couples there really were everywhere. She had to admit the romantic atmosphere was present.

Then she realized they were all looking at her.

She blinked self-consciously as most of the partygoers in the near vicinity slowed to a stop, all eyes turning to look in her direction. Conversations seemed to halt as people realized that a princess had just shown up to the event. Before long, everyone had caught sight of what was attracting all the attention, and a strange halt spread over the crowd. Even the band quieted after a moment, and the music stopped completely.

Nana felt glued to the spot for a second time that day, caught in the gaze of what had to be a hundred or so townsfolk. 

“Uh…” she stammered, not entirely sure what to do with the sudden attention. Was she supposed to make a speech? Do a solo??

She had just begun to wildly piece together a skating routine in her head when a young meif’wa boy made his way through a gap in the crowd, gliding towards her on his skates with his knees bent slightly, like any other small child without much experience. His eyes were glued to her as he did a decent job of maintaining his balance.

“Hello your highness,” he warbled, attempting to do a small bow. He ended up just dipping his head and bending his knees a bit more. Nana took a breath in, blocking out all the other people and focusing on the boy.

“Hi there,” she said brightly, bending down to look at him. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Leo,” he replied, straightening back up and wobbling slightly on his feet.

“Hi Leo. I’m Nana,” Nana said, offering a hand. “Will you skate with me?”

The small meif’wa boy grinned, happily taking her hand and holding on tight enough that his legs didn’t wobble anymore. 

Nana kept a steady grip on Leo’s hand, taking a step forward and gliding a few feet with him close behind her. They had just made it a few feet before Nana looked up, seeing that the crowd was still intently watching.

She paused, Leo coming to a stop next to her. “You don’t have to stop!” she laughed, her voice carrying over all the people. She directed her attention to the band. “Keep playing! It’s ok!”

The members of the orchestra all turned their heads around to look at each other, trying to figure out what to do. The director shook his head, raising his arms again and bringing them down, conducting. As the lively tune started back up, the people began to move again, and the sounds of conversation and skating filled the air again.

Nana didn’t miss that people were still watching her as she skated around the pond with Leo, but she just smiled, laughing with the little boy as they made figure-8’s and wove around the crowd. Some other kids who could only be Leo’s friends watched with jealousy as Nana swung him around, taking his other hand so the two of them were skating in a circle, holding tight to each other’s arms. Leo laughed out loud, and Nana found that she was, too. Sliding around them, Celestia scrambled around on the ice in an attempt to eat the snowflakes out of the air.

Nana so badly missed just simple  _ fun _ like this, being able to laugh out loud without anyone telling her to be quiet, and make friends without her family needing to approve. She could fantasize all she wanted without anyone telling her to pay attention. She could be herself without anyone thinking less of her.

After a moment, Leo broke away to zoom back towards his friends, and Nana took off on her own. She sped up, making a loop around the crowd in the center of the ice. The cold wind cut across her face, blowing the loose strands of hair. Her heart accelerated in her chest as she twisted around to continue backwards, extending a leg behind her. 

It occurred to her after a moment that people were starting to watch her again, more than before. It was most likely due to the fact that she was showing off a bit now, adding in more twists and turns and spins that she had taught herself. She considered toning it down a little.

Instead she closed her eyes, blocking them out. An instinct inside of her somewhere told her this would be her last chance to do anything like this for a long time.

While Nana wove around to the center of the ice, where the people had cleared something of a stage for her, a handful of gasps and confused chatter broke out among the people. For in that moment, two very strange things happened.

Anyone with their attention directed at the princess could see that some loose tree limbs- just twigs that had fallen- had begun to shake strangely, almost seeming to be catching a non-existent breeze. Right before the people’s eyes, they seemed to be floating into the air.

Above the crowd, however, some people had noticed an odd rumbling of what might have been thunder. An eerie greenish light stretched across the night sky, illuminating the clouds. As more and more people tore their eyes away from Nana to look, the light seemed to be getting brighter, glowing through the clouds and heading in the direction of the square. 

Back at the palace, a strange dry cold blew through the halls. The king emerged from his wing of the castle, hurrying to pull a coat tighter around himself as he headed for the large balcony overlooking the mountains and the square far below. He looked up, the growing green light from the sky illuminating his face. He stared at it.

“No,” he whispered, turning on his heel and sprinting back into the palace. “Not now.  _ Not now. _ ”

Back at the celebration, Nana finally processed the sudden hush that had fallen over the crowd again. But this time it had nothing to do with her.

Mid-spin, something zooming straight out of the glow in the clouds towards her caught her eye and she stumbled, hastily regaining her balance as the people around her cried out. As whatever it was approached, she saw that it wasn’t a thing, but a person. And an animal.

Soaring through the air towards the frozen lake was a man riding a griffin, its giant dark wings stretched out as they descended. The man had sleek dark hair pulled back and cold blue eyes above an even colder smile. He wore dark robes, tall boots, and a green tunic that matched the eerie aura he seemed to be whisking through the air with him. In one of his hands was a long staff.

As they descended, all the fires in all the lampposts began to blow out one by one, sending the crowd into further chaos. Without the warm light, the snowy celebration suddenly seemed much colder and darker.

Nana slid back as the griffin and his rider touched down on the ice a few feet in front of her, screeching to a halt as she continued to put distance between herself and them. The people ran backwards as well, giving the two of them a wide berth. Nana considered hurrying to join the crowd and blend in best she could, but something about the way the man was carefully watching her- hardly taking his eyes off her, in fact- made her feel like this dramatic entrance wasn’t completely random.

She stood still, holding her ground on the ice as everyone watched the man slide off the griffin. Celestia slid through the crowd, and Nana leaned down to pick her up. The two of them watched carefully as the man slowly made his way towards her. He hadn’t said a word yet, but he had a very distinct presence about him. It made Nana want to scoot further away, but she held still, meeting his gaze with what she hoped was equal intensity.

Nana had had plenty of experience with getting a bad read on people in her life. Every so often she would come into contact with someone, maybe a good deal older, maybe closer to herself in age, sometimes in the palace or out. They were often the kind of person that had been invited to the castle and by no other means had any reason to cause suspicion, but Nana could always see right through them when nobody else seemed to. Something about the way they smiled, showered her parents with compliments, asked her and her sisters too many questions. While other people may have seen a perfectly polite and upstanding individual, she saw them for what they really were.

Whatever this guy was here for, it could be nothing good.

“Hello princess,” he finally said, his voice somehow sounding exactly as overly-charismatic as she thought it would. “Having a nice birthday?”

“Who are you?” Nana asked back, taking one small step backwards. All of her instincts were still screaming that she should have gotten away when she had the chance.

“Oh, of course,” he said, beginning to walk a circle around her. Nana twisted around to continue facing him as he moved. “How rude. Allow me to introduce myself.” With one arm, he lazily waved his staff through the air. A burst of cold wind blew through, and the empty fireplaces on the lampposts filled with strange flickering teal flames. The square was bathed in the odd blue-ish glow.

Nana got a closer look at the staff. She didn’t have much experience with wizards or magic, meif’wa typically keeping to themselves as opposed to getting involved with anything like that. The staff was almost as tall as the man himself, green and teal and silver all woven together. On the top was what looked like a glowing shard of glass, seeming to contain a sort of fire of its own. Before Nana could wonder too much about it, the man came back around the other side of her.

“My name is Damien,” he said with a bow. “Your future husband.”

A combination of confusion and indignation shot through Nana. “Husband?” she repeated loudly, raising an eyebrow.

Damien laughed at her reaction, straightening back up and standing back to look at her better again. She found herself holding Celestia tighter, almost protectively. “Well, of course,” he said, rolling his eyes with a smile. “I could hardly pass up an opportunity like this. It’s your eighteenth birthday, I’ve been looking forward to this for  _ ages.  _ Out of twelve siblings, only one is born a witch. What are the odds?”

Nana’s thought process stopped abruptly, his words catching up with her. Both her eyebrows raised and her grip loosened slightly on Celestia.

“Ex...cuse me?”

Damien laughed again, holding out his arms. The staff in his left hand glowed menacingly. “As if you don’t know. I knew you were beautiful and intuitive, but I assumed you’d be  _ smart  _ too. Come on, magics-users aren’t born every day. Surely you were able to put two and two together by now.”

Nana still felt like something wasn’t clicking correctly in her head, all the snarky remarks unable to make it past her mouth. She wanted to disregard it but something about his implication fit too well. Unexplainable things happening around her. A feeling of not belonging. Her parents always keeping her a little too sheltered.

“I’m… not a witch,” she finally said. But it was quiet. Unsure.

Damien shook his head, clicking his tongue disappointedly. “And here I thought maybe your parents would have explained. Oh well. Can’t expect too much from meif’was. It’s all that catty haughtiness in you. Even if they did make such a lovely young daughter.”

He shot her a wink. Her brain began to work again, and she frowned.

“Even if I  _ am _ magic, what makes you think I’d want to marry you?” she shot, leaning away as he began to circle her again like a vulture. “You seem to know a little too much about me and my family. I don’t even know you.”

“Ah, but we’re meant to be,” he said, twirling the staff. “I search across the whole land looking for girls like you. What is it  _ about  _ you that attracts magic when nobody else in your bloodline does? There’s an innate sense of mystery, and I must admit I find that  _ highly  _ attractive. You’re just like me, you know. I wasn’t born with magic, but I still managed to find some of my own.”

The shard on top of his staff glinted. Nana’s eyes flicked from Damien to the staff, mind racing.

“And you’re bound to be a much better wife than the others.”

That regained her attention. Her eyes shot straight back to him, and he continued. There was some kind of commotion beginning behind her, but she didn’t dare turn her back to look.

“Yes, I’ve got three more back at my own palace,” he said, almost sounding bored. “But they’re such  _ disappointments.  _ No ability whatsoever. And they’ve all turned out to be such hags. But I can sense there’s more to you, isn’t there? Surely once you learn obedience you’ll turn out to be exactly what I want.”

Nana, having heard enough, opened her mouth to attempt to form some kind of comeback, but the commotion picked up and she heard the distinct sound of horse hooves on snow. She spun around, seeing a large number of the royal guard on horseback as well as both her parents and three of her older siblings. The king hopped off his horse, brandishing his sword in the direction of Damien on the opposite side of the pond.

“Stay away from her!” he called, the queen hanging back behind him and clutching her hands to her chest. “That is an ORDER!”

“That’s actually hilarious,” Damien said, twirling the staff once more as if nothing had happened. “I don’t take orders from you.”

The king sneered, glaring across the ice. “GUARDS!” He called.

All around him, the guards began to dismount and pull out their weapons, all making their way towards Damien and Nana on the other side. 

“Fine,” Damien said, bringing the tip of the staff down on the ice so that it made a sharp  _ clunk _ . “I’ll simply have to show you what happens when anyone decides to stand in my way.”

He raised the staff, the shard on top lighting up with fiery green and red light. The guards continued to run at him, and he flung the staff out towards them.

“Petrify them!” he screamed, and the light exploded in a beam in the direction of the guards. One by one as the fiery light hit them, they froze, their skin turning into a marbled grey, their armor solidifying into stone. Nana watched in horror, skidding backwards.

“Petrify them ALL!” Damien cackled, letting the beam continue. It swept across the crowd, turning them all to icy marbled stone, the townfolks’ expressions of fear and surprise written on their faces permanently. Nana screamed as the beam shot towards her family. In that moment, all the disagreements, any sort of inadequacy she felt because of them, all the issues from before vanished in a whirlwind of panic and horror as she watched them disappear in the blinding light.

When it faded, they were frozen in place, just as stone as the crowd around them. Silent and cold.

Nana held back a sob, squeezing Celestia, who had buried her head in Nana’s arms. They were surrounded by statues, ghosts of the people that had been there moments ago.

She may have lost her patience with her parents before, but they didn’t deserve this. Surely her family wasn’t really  _ gone. _

“Well, I think that’s enough demonstration for today,” Damien said, shaking his arms out and giving the staff a little flick. “Come along now princess, let’s go home.”

Nana barely processed that she was stuck, surrounded by petrified people with nowhere to run. But then something else emerged from the clouds.

Nana and Damien’s heads both whipped around to look as what looked like a second griffin seemed to fly towards the pond- but as it approached, Nana realized the body was too slender, the snout too long, the wings too graceful.

A pegasus, the color of chestnut and with long feathered shining wings, slammed all four hooves down on the ice and slid towards Nana.

“Grab on!” she called. Nana didn’t waste a second wondering what was going on, flinging an arm out and catching the pegasus’s neck. She hoisted herself over her back, securing Celestia in her lap. She clung to the horse’s neck as she took back to the air, flapping her wings and coming up off the ice.

“Where do you THINK you’re going?” Damien’s voice rang out over the flapping of the pegasus’s wings. Nana bent back around, her stomach clenching at the sight of the stone crowd. Damien still stood in the center of the ice, watching her ascend further and further into the air. “You’ll end up coming back anyway. I can assure you THAT.”

Nana buried her face in the horse’s mane, looking away. Celestia curled into a little ball in her lap.

“I’m giving you three days!” Damien called. “Three days to change your mind, princess! Marry me, or they stay like this forever!”

Three days before the spell becomes permanent.

As the pegasus climbed further and further into the clouds, the cold wind began to whip Nana’s already messy hairdo all over the place. She turned her attention away from the village and the castle disappearing behind them, looking instead at the pegasus she was riding on. The  _ talking  _ pegasus, with a shiny brown mane and a dainty silver circlet tucked beneath her ears.

“Who are you? Why did you help me?” she called over the wind. 

“My name is Teony,” she replied, turning her head back slightly. “I’ve had a run-in with Damien before. I thought he might be coming for you next. I don’t know how he’s so good at tracking down magics-users, but… well. I just needed to get you out of there.”

“Thank you,” Nana said, turning back around to look at the clouds below them. “But we have to go back. I- this is my fault, I need to do something to undo what he did, I-”

“I can’t do that,” Teony said, shaking her head. “You can’t blame yourself. Damien is an  _ evil man.  _ He stole that scepter from a powerful warlock. There’s nothing we can do now.”

“There has to be something!” Nana said, again feeling a sob building in her chest. Small icicle-like tears dripped down her cheeks. “I- I can’t just leave them like that! The last thing I said to my parents was during a fight. I yelled at them. I didn’t know- I didn’t-”

“I’m sorry Nana,” Teony said softly, wings still gliding steadily. “You can make it up to them by getting away safely.”

Nana used a free hand to wipe her tears away, squinting against wind as they made their way over the top of the clouds. Above it all, it was a clear night sky, stars sprinkling the deep black. They seemed to be heading east, towards the direction in which the sun would be rising soon.

“Where are we going?” Nana asked. Teony gave another flap, staring ahead.

“Somewhere safe,” she said.


	3. chapter 3

How many hours had passed, Nana didn’t know. She only realized that the sun was starting to rise when she noticed the bright pink light shining through her eyelids as she was waking up.

Sometime during the flight, the steady rocking of Teony’s flapping wings and the warmth of Celestia curled up in her lap had finally convinced Nana to doze off. As she blinked her eyes, coming back to reality, she sat up and looked around. The clouds had gotten a bit fuller, fluffier. They seemed to be painted across the sky in pastel shades of pink, peach, and lavender, almost sparkling in the sunrise.

The sunrise itself was even more amazing, the whole sky around them lit up in a rose-golden glow. The sun warmed Nana’s back, which felt especially good after a night of flying in a dress she soon realized was not designed to keep her warm.

“We’re here,” Teony said, her first words in hours. Nana looked up, eyes widening as they came over a puff of clouds and into view of what was ahead.

Set atop the clouds as if they were solid ground was a massive castle, looking as if it was made of ice or glass or some other glittering material that caught the reflections of the sunrise. It seemed to glow in the sky, covered in entrances and balconies at every level as if the people who inhabited it could only be birds. As Nana watched, she did see small figures moving and hovering around the outer walls.

She looked down, checking to see if the castle was somehow being supported by some very, very tall structure. But no, it seemed to be nestled securely on the clouds of its own accord, safe high above the entire surface world.

“Welcome to the north witch’s guild,” Teony said. Nana looked at her, then back at the castle. Witches.

Sure enough, the closer they came, the easier it was to see that the figures darting around in the air weren’t birds or pegasi or anything of the sort. They were women, ranging in age from what looked like preteen girls to older, wrinkled ladies.

A strange, innate sense of excitement sparked somewhere inside Nana. She had only seen witches in person a few times before, just whenever they passed through the mountains. She always loved their eccentric sort of demeanor, their colorful and elaborate clothes, and the way they just didn’t seem to obey the laws of reality. Even as she watched now, a woman with waist length neon green hair drifted through the air on her back, leaving behind her a trail of sparkles without a care in the world. A black cat with bluebird wings flapped happily after her.

Teony began to descend towards the largest balcony at the base of the castle that was connected to a huge grand entryway. A sparkling multicolored fountain was on the edge, sending cascades of water down into the clouds. Waiting for them were three girls, looking up expectantly.

Teony landed on the smooth surface, her hooves clopping as she jogged to a stop. The girls ran to meet them.

“Oh my gosh, you came back!” one called, long dark red hair held back by a brown headband.

“Of… course I did, Nicole,” Teony said, shooting her a look. “What did you think I was doing?”

“Oh we knew what you were doing,” the second said, rolling her eyes. She was an inch or two shorter than Nicole, but had equally long pure white hair that hung mostly over her face. Her clothes were in stark comparison to her friends’, almost entirely black as opposed to more colorful.

“Well… clearly she succeeded,” the third said, standing where she was and looking over Nana. Normally Nana would have felt a bit of self-consciousness in being examined like this, but the blonde woman didn’t seem especially judgemental. More sympathetic.

“Nana, this is Nicole, Sasha, and Zoe,” Teony said, nodding to each of them in turn. “They’re, um… well, they’re witches. Like you.”

“Not exactly like you guys, though,” Zoe corrected, nodding at both of them. “We’re witches by blood. Our families have been in these guilds for generations. You’re a magics-user, which means you have a connection to sorcery even if it doesn’t run in your family.”

“I’ve been told,” Nana said, still taking in the bustling and shining surroundings. Then she frowned, looking back at Teony.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘you guys’?” she asked. The three witches looked at each other, clearly not meaning to have let that slip so soon. Teony didn’t look at Nana, turning away.

“Know what? We’ll get there eventually,” Nicole finally said, bounding around to take the lead. She had a fierce sort of air about her, a fighter. She patted Teony’s neck assuredly, guestering towards the entryway. “Let’s head inside and talk to Lucinda. She’ll be able to help.”

As Nicole led the other four inside, Nana took a moment to look around at the girls. Nicole was ever-confident, and she noticed what looked like a crystal ring on one of her fingers. Nana wondered vaguely about how marriage worked for wizards and witches. Then there was Sasha, who didn’t say much, her hands tucked into her pockets with a hood pulled over her head. She had a tendency to sort of smile softly at the others’ jokes, though, so there was a friendship there. Zoe had pointed ears and a hairpiece that seemed to be made of leaves, seeming very much like a woodland fairy. She seemed to be the most mature, jumping in occasionally to help Nicole explain as she chatted about the guild, like a mom keeping her child on topic.

Nana forced herself to zone back in, realizing she had gotten carried away reading the people around her as she so often did. 

“So yeah, this is our big house, essentially,” Nicole was saying, waving an arm around the grand hall they had just entered. “Not that you  _ have  _ to live here or anything. It’s just a safe place to learn and grow your skills and live with other witches. And just for the record, our guild is the best. We don’t ever get raided or attacked or intruded upon or anything because we were  _ smart.  _ The wizards are literally in some cave somewhere.”

“It’s a nice cave,” Zoe admitted.

“Yeah, but it’s not a floating palace, is it?” Nicole snickered. “And they get raccoons. OH, Sasha, remember that time? With the raccoons and the fireworks, a few summers ago?”

“Can’t say I do,” Sasha said, staring ahead.

“ _ What _ ? How could you not remember-”

“There’s Lucinda!” Teony cut in, looking up to the top of the terrace. Nana followed her gaze, and saw someone soaring over the handful of witches moving around the area. Several people paused in what they were doing to look up and watch her as she came over the railing, landing in front of the group. She had what looked like barn owl wings attached to her back, and they folded away and out of sight right before Nana’s eyes. Her long wavy orange hair fell on top of especially stylish purple and black robes, and when she looked up to meet her eyes, she saw that they were dark red. 

She didn’t seem much older than the witches around her, but there was no mistaking that she was in charge. Teony hurried ahead to meet her.

“We barely made it out,” she explained. “We were right. Damien got there first. He put a spell on her whole village, turned them to stone. And of course there’s an ultimatum. He gave us three days.”

Nana looked back and forth between Lucinda and Teony, trying to piece together what the entire situation was. She didn’t miss her use of the word “us,” not “her.” She wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Good ole Damien,” Lucinda said with a coy smile, putting a hand on her hip. “You can always rely on him to screw up witch’s lives.”

“Wait,” Zoe said, pointing accusingly at Lucinda. “You knew Teony was doing this?? You let her go off on her own?”

“Another unrecognized magics-user, coming of age while Damien was still abroad?” Lucinda said, holding a hand over her chest. “Of course Teony was the right one for the job! We talked about it beforehand. She knew what she was getting into.”

“I still have a lot of questions,” Nana finally said, coming around the other side of Teony with Celestia in her arms. “How do you  _ know  _ I’m a witch? And do you know a way to reverse his spell?”

Lucinda looked over Nana in a way very similar to how Zoe had earlier. Nana felt very unlike herself, tired, still wearing the short dress from before, and a bit of a mess physically and emotionally. The excitement for life that always seemed to come so easily to her was doused.

“We can try,” Lucinda said, meeting her gaze and smiling genuinely. “Come with us.”

~

Not too much later, Nicole, Sasha, and Zoe all were sitting around in another wing of the castle, the hall that many of them shared as a bedroom. The tall open windows and balconies allowed the brightly colored sunrise to stream in from several angles, illuminating the beds and mirrors and closets built into the walls and platforms all over the walls and ceiling. Gravity and normalcy didn’t seem to have much of a place there.

While a handful of others hung around higher up, the three witches were at the very bottom, Nicole lying against Teony, who had sat down on the floor as well. Sasha was braiding a lock of her mane.

“Did you hear about that wizard kid that was demanding chicken sacrifices in that village?” Nicole asked, tilting her head back to look at the others. Sasha rolled her eyes and Zoe gasped, startling Celestia in her lap.

“I did hear about that!” Zoe said thoughtfully, petting her head. “It was one of those incredibly superstitious villages that hates magic. All he had to do was light a few things on fire and they were begging him to tell them ways they could appease him. He was like, ten.”

“Young wizards,” Teony said, shaking her head. “This is why magic families need to stick together.”

“Eh, nothin’ wrong with letting your kids be. Free range, y’know?” Nicole said, waving her wand around in the air. She created little rings of smoke that floated into the air above them. “Sure it sort of cuts out positive role models sometimes but it’s great for experience.”

“Exactly what I mean,” Teony muttered.

“Well, isn’t the end of that story that the kid somehow ended up at the guild anyway?” Zoe said, sitting down on a stool by a mirror. “Another case of a young magics-user going rogue and being brought to the guild.  _ Someone  _ out there is looking out for them.”

“No, you’re totally right,” Nicole said, twisting around to sit up. “I agree, the less corrupted wizards we got out in the world the better. We don’t need another Demon Warlock. But still, who could possibly be the one  _ doing  _ it every time? What kind of wizard puts out forest fires and hoists risky magic kids back to the adults all the time without accepting any kind of credit? The secret witch police?”

“What’s police?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well,” Sasha began, placing down a braided piece of Teony’s mane. “I heard a rumor that doesn’t sound totally unbelievable.”

Before she could continue, however, Lucinda came back into the room with Nana following close behind her. She felt indescribably comfortable in a new outfit, a soft thick magenta dress with lavender accents and pink sleeves that puffed at her wrists. She had taken her hair down and braided it, letting it hang loosely down her back with her ruby-pink ribbon tied to the end in a bow. Lucinda had also provided lace-up ankle boots that were a lot more comfortable to walk in than ice skates.

“You look cute,” Teony said. 

“Warmer, I hope?” Lucinda asked, turning to Nana. Nana grinned back at her. “Yes, thanks,” she responded, smoothing out the skirt. “I’ve lived in a palace my whole life and I have  _ never  _ seen a closet like that. The amount of variety in materials, and the textures-! Oh, and all the COLOR choices, I could barely even focus long enough to choose! And some of the outfits were so cute, and so unique, but they just didn’t seem fitting for the temperature, but they were fun to just LOOK at! If I had that many choices back home I’d never…”

She trailed off, seeing that they were all giving her looks of varied interest or held-back giggles. She felt her cheeks get hot.

“Sorry, I have a tendency to ramble,” she said, avoiding their eyes and looking at the ground. 

“Nah, that was cute,” Nicole said, shaking her head with a smile. “You just have so much passion.”

“Sorry,” she said again.

“Why do you keep apologizing? You were just expressing interest,” Lucinda said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Listen, you’re tame compared to a lot of other witches. Talk to me when you get a hobby brewing slime potions so you can bathe in them every night. Or shrink yourself itty-bitty small so you can live with beetles.”

“Wh- huh?”

“Exactly. Like I said. Tame.”

“If you say so. But it’s like I asked before, how do you even know I’m like you? I’ve never… cast a spell, or sprouted wings or anything.”

“When you’re raised like a normal human your magic tends to express itself in other ways,” Teony spoke up, everyone turning to listen. “You haven’t learned to focus it on anything and you aren’t even conscious of it. It might make inanimate objects act strange, or make plants grow, or attract animals to you, or other things like that. It’s a supernatural connection to nature and the heart of our very beings. When it’s a part of you sometimes you don’t even notice anything’s off.”

“So, essentially, any witch or wizard can sense it really,” Nicole explained, leaning back against Teony again. “Just sort of a magnetic feeling in your gut. There are hardly any witches in the mountain kingdom at all, so whenever anyone’s been to visit it’s been super obvious. Magics-users are  _ so  _ much harder to sniff out in really magic-heavy areas.”

“And someone must have warned your parents,” Zoe said, shaking her head. “That’s why they were so careful for so long. Damien’s been hunting down people like you for ages.”

Nana stared at the floor, her mind working. Her parents knew about Damien. Her whole life. They were protecting her the only way they knew how.

The biting sense of guilt grew.

Besides that, she realized they did have a point. She remembered a time when she was very young and she was playing with dolls, and she figured it was just her memories being foggy from being so young, but some of the dolls were moving on their own. One of her siblings had screamed when they saw it, and she was never able to do it again after that.

And then there was also her unexplainable ability to just feel when there were other people nearby. She wasn’t sure if it was magic related, but something about it didn’t feel completely natural. She could always tell exactly who was coming and from where, especially when she focused.

She’d just never thought to put an explanation to it before.

“Teony, I need to ask,” she said after a while, looking up at the black-eyed pegasus. “Why do you know so much about magics-users? Are you… somehow one too?”

Every head in the room whipped around to face Teony, some of them grimacing slightly as if Nana had just introduced a very sore subject. Teony, instead of turning away again, sighed and shifted, getting back into a standing position.

“I used to be,” she whispered. The tarnished silver headpiece shone in the sunrise light.

Nana’s eyes widened as she came closer, standing before her. “What happened?”

Teony tilted her snout up so that she could look Nana in the eye. “I wasn’t always a pegasus, I mean. I used to be a human. That’s how I was born and how I lived my life up until nearly six years ago. I was just a normal girl in a village on the outskirts of the orchard forest, but I was just like you. I didn’t know anything was unusual about me. My parents were farmers, and I loved keeping up with the chores, keeping track of the numbers, the facts. Magic was very outside my realm of expertise. But… over time things started to make less sense. Crops I interacted with would grow nearly ten feet tall. My favorite orange tree one day snapped in half because the number of oranges growing on it literally weighed it down. There was an old witch who was passing through one day, and she came straight to our house and knocked on the front door.”

Nana, completely invested in the story, walked over and sat on a stool next to Zoe. Teony continued. “She told us about how witches can be born from non-magical bloodlines, and how unless I did something to invest that ability and protect it, namely meeting and learning from other witches, it would put me in serious danger. She told me about the guild’s location and how to get there, but… I guess I was scared. I didn’t understand what it all meant so I thought I could learn to control it myself.”

“And… Damien found you?”

“It was my eighteenth birthday, too. We were having dinner out in the backyard under the stars. He showed up and told me all the things he told you, about searching for magics-users and having an interest in them. He said… he said my parents would have the  _ privilege  _ of letting me marry him, the pig. I didn’t like it but they liked it even less. My parents were always very outspoken critics of people they didn’t like. They offended him.”

Nana looked down to the soft purple tiled floor, knowing what was coming next.

“He mentioned always liking the insignia on the flags in the mountain kingdom. I think he’d been there recently. It was all sort of a blur- he yelled something about wings and a tail- and before I knew it I had four hooves and a snout. He left.”

“And… what about you?”

Teony sighed. “My parents were heartbroken. They’d never have said it but I could see it in them. Their only daughter had been replaced by a  _ horse.  _ I could hear them arguing that night, trying to figure out where to go from there. Nobody in the village would ever accept me again, and I couldn’t do farmwork anymore. I had only become a burden. I didn’t know what else to do. So… I ran away. I came here. The guild took me in no problem.”

That seemed to be the end of it. But Nana could always see below the surface. Teony was still hurting, grappling with the concept that her parents could never accept her for what she was.

She cursed herself for resonating with her. It wasn’t Nana’s parents’ fault that they didn’t understand. They were protecting her.

“There  _ has _ to be something we can do,” she finally said, repeating what she had said before. “Didn’t you say Damien’s power was stolen anyway? He can’t be all-powerful. There has to be a counterspell, or a weakness, or  _ something. _ You guys spend your whole lives learning about magic, what options do we have?”

The girls all glanced at each other as Teony flicked her head back, walking away. “No. There’s nothing.”

“Welll, there’s the wand of light,” Sasha mumbled, staring at the ceiling. Lucinda crossed her arms and glared at her as Nicole shushed her.

“What’s that?” Nana asked immediately, looking intently around at the girls who clearly understood. “What’s the wand of light?”

“Teony doesn’t like to talk about it,” Nicole said through gritted teeth, more directed at the indifferent Sasha.

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t exist,” Teony said, her back turned. “Nobody’s ever found it before. There’s no proof it’s even real aside from legend.”

Her voice was defeated. Hopeless.

Something stirred inside of Nana. She could understand where Teony was coming from- that dark creeping feeling that you were trapped in the worst possible scenario with no way out. But the fact that she was standing where she was was proof that that was never really the end.

“That’s never stopped legends from being real before,” she said softly, running a hand along Teony’s deep brown coat.

“If the legends are true, then the wand of light could potentially be more powerful than Damien’s magic,” Lucinda said. “But the fact that it seems so impossible is probably why he isn’t scared of it.”

“Well, how do we find it then?”

“It’s not found,” Zoe explained, setting Celestia down on the floor. “It’s built. There’s three pieces you have to track down and put together.”

“Oh,” Nana said, trying to account for the new complication. “So… it’s broken and scattered across the land?”

Lucinda wove her hand through the air, and a long twisted wooden staff appeared suddenly in her hand as if someone had just dropped it there. The green gem in the center glowed, and a thick book dropped out of the flash right into her hands. She flipped through, opening to a certain page.

“Three key pieces,” she read. “A measure of courage. A ring of love. And a lost crystal, lit by hope’s eternal flame.”

Nana replayed it all again in her head. It wasn’t the simplest recipe. Baking pastries, she knew. Throwing together sugar and eggs for a cake was no issue for her. But the vagueness of these pieces was slightly disheartening.

“I know most of those don’t make sense,” Nicole said, coming to stand next to her. “But a lot of people have speculated that the “lost crystal” could be Esmond’s crystal, a magic relic created during the early days of the founding of the wizard’s guild. It was cracked and broke into three parts, naturally, but even one of those shards would still contain enough power to do the job.”

Nana contemplated this. Plenty of wizard’s legends had made their way into literature that she had read in her lifetime, and she thought she vaguely remembered something about an Esmond in wizard lore. A magical knight that protected a magical princess. It all sort of ran together after a while.

Suddenly, a bell began to toll somewhere. Everyone looked up as it rang out musically through the halls, echoing over the voices. Someone up above called out excitedly to her friend, and they both dove out a window, sprouting bird wings and taking to the sky.

“Sunrise painting,” Lucinda said to Nana, who was watching with mildly confused interest. She looked back at her, eyes wide.

“Sunrise  _ what _ ?”

Lucinda looked pointedly at the girls in front of her. “Care to demonstrate?”

Nicole shrugged, standing up. “I haven’t in a while. Might still be fun. Sasha, Zoe?”

They nodded, following her out onto the nearby balcony. Nana, Lucinda, and Teony followed, Nana blinking in the intense morning sunlight. The three witches came to the edge of the platform, turning and falling off one by one. Nicole sprouted robin wings, flapping up into the clouds. Sasha followed with dark raven wings, and Zoe with some shining golden variation. They held their wands out behind them, leaving a trail of sparkling colored light.

“Light manipulation is one of the first things we teach young witches,” Lucinda explained, coming to stand next to Nana as she watched the colors twist and ebb across the clouds. “A great way to practice is by taking the last few minutes of a sunrise or a sunset and drawing them out, sort of “painting” the brighter colors back into the sky. They’re always so fleeting anyway. No one person can really do this by themself, so it’s become sort of a ritual every morning and every night for anyone who wants to come out and paint the sky.”

“Can all witches do it?”

“You’d need a wand first,” Lucinda said with another playful smile. “And you’d need to learn to grow your wings.”

“I can grow wings??”

Lucinda laughed at Nana’s burst of enthusiasm. “Maybe. Some magics-users can while others can’t. It’s really only an inherited trait for blood wizards.”

She turned and began to head back inside, the bright orange lights coming from the sunrise making her hair seem to glow like fire. “Maybe if you start training, we can figure out what sort of magical talents you have. Just let me know what you want to do, babe.”

Nana looked back out over the skyline. A dozen or so witches were soaring around, three of them being Nana’s new friends. It was beautiful to watch, the vastness of the sky being filled with bright hues.

Nana’s gaze drifted over to Teony, and the silver tiara-like ornament on her head. Teony noticed her looking and released another breath, watching the witches fly around.

“This is all I have left of my family,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “It used to be a necklace. They gave it to me on my birthday. Apparently it’s an heirloom. It was the only thing I was able to keep during the transformation, for whatever reason. I’m trying to break away from my past but… I’ve never been able to get rid of it.”

Nana thought for a moment, then came to a solid decision.

“You’ll never have to,” she assured her, running a hand through her mane. “You’re going to see your family again, and I’m going to see mine. We’re going to find that wand of light. I promise.”

Teony turned to look at her, almost daring to believe it.

“There’s a lot of weight to a promise like that,” she warned her, but Nana just smiled.

“Hope is one of the most valuable things we have,” Nana said softly. “I think it’s really important that we both remember not to lose sight of it. I’m willing to do this if you are.”

Teony shook her mane and bobbed her head in what might have been a nod.

“Alright,” she said. “Ok. I can.”

Nana rubbed her neck. “Let’s do it then! Where do we start?”

Teony turned and began to walk back inside, Nana running to walk beside her. “We need to track down whatever a ‘measure of courage’ is,” she said as they passed through the open archway. “I’ve read every book of magical artifacts we have access to. Nothing sounds anything like it. The closest thing I can think of is looking for where courage can be found- which would mean searching somewhere dangerous, like the forbidden forest.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Nana said. Teony shook her head.

“Most people haven’t. It is  _ forbidden _ ,” she said, leaning down so Celestia could jump up and lick her face. “It’s full of all kinds of dangerous things. People don’t just go wandering into it.”

“Well, I think you’re right then,” Nana said brightly, putting her hands on her hips. “That sounds like the place for us! I don’t think we count as ‘most people,’ right?”

Teony chuckled to herself. “Always so chipper. I can’t decide whether you’re naive or just spirited.”

“Come on Teony,” Nana said, putting her hands on either side of her face. “We’ve got a kingdom to save and an adventure to have. For once I actually have an outlet. I think a little danger is overdue, don’t you?”

“Hardly,” Teony muttered.

A little while later, Nana, Teony, and Celestia were on the main balcony out by the entrance again with a pack of supplies and a team ready to send them off.

“You sure Celestia doesn’t need to stay here with us?” Nicole said, reaching up to where the husky puppy was settled in Nana’s lap to pet her. 

“We’ll take good care of her,” Nana said, sitting on Teony’s back like before. “Besides. We’ve kind of been in this whole thing together so far. It’s not time to split up yet, right Celestia?”

Celestia yipped, wagging her whole back end and panting up at Nana. Lucinda came out to join them, her long wooden wand-staff from before back in her hand.

“You can always come back here if you need to,” she said, coming to stand with the others in front of Teony. “Know that we’re always available when nothing else is.”

“Thank you,” Nana said, feeling a strange sense of warmth. Almost like… belonging. Something she hadn’t quite grown accustomed to yet.

“You know the way?” Lucinda asked, running a hand over Teony’s long nose. “I think so,” Teony replied, looking uneasily in the direction they would soon be flying. “I’ve flown over it a few times before.”

“Then good luck to you both,” Lucinda said, stepping back.

“Don’t do anything too stupid,” Nicole added.

“And come back soon,” Zoe put in.

Nana smiled as Teony turned and started towards the edge. She broke into a trot, then a gallop. Soon she spread her wings out as far as they could go and leapt up at the same time as a big flap- and together the three of them took off into the clouds. Nana could still hear the others calling goodbye’s behind them, echoing away as they glided through the air and the glowing pastels of the fading sunrise.


	4. chapter 4

~

Somewhere not too far from the northern mountains or the witches’ guild, a jagged palace made almost entirely from rock and ice stood on the side of a cliff overlooking the icy sea.

Through a large open entryway balcony not completely unlike the one found on the front of the cloud castle, though this one had a much darker and drearier feeling to it, there was the largest open portion of the upper loft. The entire hall was filled with stacks and stacks of riches and various treasures, the piles of gold and gemstones and stolen artwork stacking up high to the arched ceiling, all collections of prizes won through years of tricking, scheming, and just plain stealing.

Damien walked through the center of it all, staff in hand, looking out over the foggy winter sealine. 

Hurrying up behind him came three very short and stout individuals carrying different trays of grand-looking center courses of meat, running on their short little legs to catch up with him while still balancing the dishes in front of them. Each of them was a bit goblin-ish had ill-fitting old looking gowns of some kind or another, as well as jewelry and decorations in their hair like a last ditch attempt at looking nice. Instead it came across as hasty and a little underwhelming.

“I want EVERYONE talking about this wedding,” Damien said aloud, his voice booming all over the high-ceilinged room. “I want them to be talking about it for months. It’s going to be the event of the  _ year _ .”

Damien finally came to a stop and the short ladies scrambled around to come around the front of him, offering the trays up to him. He raised an eyebrow, shifting back slightly away from them.

“Alright, let’s look at what we have here,” he sighed, taking a fork off the chicken tray and picking off a bite. “The main course of any wedding celebration says  _ so much  _ about the host and the quality of the party. Every aspect has to be perfect.”

He chewed the chicken thoughtfully, smacking his lips a few times. “Chicken is good…” he said vaguely. “Or… fish?”

The goblin lady carrying the fish tray came around to the front and he tried that one as well, chewing it slowly. “Hm…” he hummed, frowning at the ceiling. “Well… you can never go wrong with beef, can you?”

The third goblin lady excitedly offered up her tray, and he took a small bite of the roast on it. He swallowed it, tapping the fork to his chin. “Tender… and flavorful…” he muttered, still deep in thought. Then he shook his head with a grin.

“Oh, why scrimp? People will think I’m cheap!” he said, holding his arms out as he turned back around on the goblin ladies. “We’ll just have all of them!”

The goblin ladies all looked at each other looking either pleased or confused, but jumped when Damien yelled out suddenly, making a face. He picked something out of his overly-white teeth, holding it out to look at it. It was a tiny sliver of bone.

“What is THIS?” he demanded, shoving it in the beef tray lady’s face. Seemingly unable to speak, she shook her head profusely, and Damien flung his arm out. He knocked the tray clean over, sending the carefully arranged meat dish all over the stone floor as the goblin lady scrambled to catch the tray. She held it up protectively over her face, and Damien leaded over, using the shiny surface as a mirror. 

The lady shook behind the tray, glancing over the top to watch as he picked at his teeth for a moment before giving himself a flashy smile in his reflection.

“Better,” he said, straightening up. Then he frowned at the mess.

“Clean this up!” he ordered loudly, his voice echoing again. “What do you think this IS, a pigsty?”

The goblin ladies hurried as fast and frantically as they could to pick up bits of meat and vegetables and garnish off the floors as Damien turned away in disgust. “I’ll get a new bride in two days,” he said, mostly to himself as he pinched his nose in exasperation. “Hopefully she isn’t as  _ obnoxious  _ as any of the other ones.”

Damien strode away, distracting himself with continuing mentally putting together a grand and prestigious wedding. The goblin ladies paused in their work to shoot a glare in his direction, safely where he couldn’t see. 

~

Nana continued to ride on Teony’s back, soaring through the line of clouds over the land below. She clutched Celestia carefully, who was wiggling around to get a better view of the strange dim atmosphere the three of them had just entered.

The bright sunrise had long since faded, and as they began to descend towards the outskirts of the woods below, it really began to set in just how thick the cloud covering really was. Once they had fully dropped below it, there was hardly any sun peeking through at all, and the gloomy sky did nothing to illuminate the darkness below.

“I guess this is it?” Nana said, reaching down to rub Teony’s neck.

“Unfortunately,” Teony said back to her, continuing to dip forward as they flew down towards the trees.

Before long, they were brushing the tops of the trees. Teony carefully drifted through the gaps in the branches, which only seemed to get thicker and more tangled as they descended. A foggy sort of haze seemed to hang in the air, as well as a chorus of some strange bug or bird Nana had never heard before droning on in the background. Though there wasn’t much of a wind chill, it was still somehow just as freezing, and she withheld a shiver.

Teony touched down on the hard dirt with a coat of dead grass covering it, clopping lightly as she jogged to a stop. Nana looked around, taking in the huge twisting tree trunks all around them that seemed to create levels to the ground, some of them thick enough to be the ground themselves. Opaque and torn cobwebs covered some of the limbs over their heads, giving the impression of a ghostlike canopy.

Nana was beginning to understand why nobody came here. There was nothing but fog, a maze-like setup of trees, and the distinct impression of trespassing on someone (or something) else’s property.

She squared her shoulders, taking a breath and shaking the feeling off. Fear wasn’t really her style.

“Alright,” she said, marching forward with Celestia on her heels. “Keep your eyes peeled. We’ll explore this whole forest if we have to.”

“Logically that’s pretty improbable,” Teony said shakily from behind. “Also, logically, shouldn’t we… um… have a better idea of what exactly we’re looking for?”

“We’ll know it when we see it,” Nana said cheerfully, but maybe a bit more confidently than she felt.

Truthfully she certainly didn’t know what they were looking for either, and she had no indication that she  _ would  _ know it if she saw it. A measure of courage. What does a measure of courage look like?

She was just beginning to wonder if maybe there was some way to narrow down their area of searching when she felt her foot catch on something. She stopped mid-step to look down and see if she was about to trip on a root or something when several things happened at once.

First, she very suddenly and roughly felt herself hoisted right off the ground as a loud snap rang out and a thick net closed around her. The same thing happened to Teony off to her left. And right at the same time, Celestia seemed to lose her balance, getting knocked backwards by the log weight system pulling the nets up and sending her sliding backwards down a hole with a high-pitched yelp.

Nana screamed, caught up in the net hanging a good six feet off the ground with ropes tightening all over the place. She could only watch as Celestia disappeared down what looked like a slide carved from several connected tree trunks, down a ditch and out of sight.

Teony, her wings cramped and folded up on either side of her in her own net, was whispering a terrified string of quiet profanities as Nana struggled against the net. Five minutes in the forbidden forest and they were already in horrible danger. The further Celestia slid away, the more panicked Nana felt. She squeezed her eyes shut. She had magic. She was magic. If she could just use her witch abilities she could help them.

She thought about the ropes snapping. She thought about teleporting outside the net. Nothing happened.

Teony suddenly froze next to her. “Someone’s coming,” she hissed.

Nana stopped struggling for a second to listen, and she could hear what sounded like steadily approaching footsteps. The rhythm and slight clopping sound made it sound like a horse.

Nana held still, squinting through the dark haze in the direction of where it was coming from. A figure began to emerge.

She was expecting a horse. What she wasn’t expecting was for it to be made of bones.

The skeleton horse had someone riding it, but Nana found herself quite preoccupied with the grinning skull and ribcage instead. It continued to clop towards them, emitting a very strange rattling sound.

“Someone appears to have taken a wrong turn.”

Nana finally tore her eyes away from the horse to look at the man who had just slid off and was walking towards her. He was tall, but skinny and pale. He had shaggy black hair that hung over his eyes and wore a leather coat over an ensemble of almost solely black clothes down to his boots, reminding Nana vaguely of a bat. For whatever reason, he had a long twig with a leaf growing off one end hanging from his belt.

“Thanks for pointing it out,” Nana said, realizing how utterly ridiculous she must look hanging there and feeling a less patient attitude take over. “I hadn’t realized.”

The man stood where he was, looking back and forth between Nana and Teony. His expression became more and more bewildered, and then his eyes finally focused on Nana’s cat ears.

“Could you maybe help us out?” Nana said down to him, hoping she came across as at least a little urgent.

“You’re one of those meif’was from the northern mountains, aren’t you?” he said, completely ignoring her. “Perfect. I’m guessing it was your bright idea to go for a romp in the forbidden forest.”

“I am  _ Princess  _ Nana Ashida, for your information,” Nana said in an attempt to sound regal and ultimately failing. 

“Oh, and an airheaded royal,” the man said, rolling his eyes. “Even better. Only fools come to the forbidden forest, your  _ highness _ .”

“And YET, YOU’RE here!” Nana shot back down at him, still struggling against the net. The more he talked the less she liked him.

“Yeah, well I’m not the one swinging from a tree,” he muttered, pulling the twig out of its place on his belt. He pointed it at the ropes suspending their nets up in the air, and a bolt of light like lightning shot out of it, severing straight through the ropes and cutting them. Nana and Teony both screeched, falling in equally un-graceful manners to the ground.

The second Nana hit the layer of dead grass, she twisted around to look back up at the man with wide eyes. He was sliding the twig back into his belt.

“You’re a wizard!” she gasped, looking at the smoking end of what must have been his wand. He raised an eyebrow, pulling down the black wrap that had been around the lower half of his face to look at her.

“No, this stick just does that,” he said sarcastically. Teony finally got back to her feet (hooves) and approached him.

“Thanks for helping us,” she said. He turned to look at her, almost looking surprised. 

“I’m Teony,” she continued, then nodded at Nana, who had stood and was brushing dirt off her dress. “And you’ve… met… Nana.”

“Zane,” he said, still giving her that same unimpressed judgemental look she was beginning to hate. For just a second, she wondered who exactly he was and what  _ he  _ was doing out in the forest, but then she remembered Celestia and hurried over to the ditch she had fallen through.

From where she was, all she could see was the makeshift slide that just led into darkness.

“What are you looking for?” Zane called from behind her.

“My puppy,” Nana responded, squinting to see if she could make out what was at the bottom. It just seemed to keep going and going.

“Your  _ puppy _ ?” Zane repeated. “Did you lose your dolly down there too? And the cupcakes you baked for monsters that live here?”

It was Nana’s turn to roll her eyes. Goodness knows she’d heard enough of that all her life and had become more or less numb to it.

“Where does this go?” she asked, straightening up and pointing down at the slide.

“To big trouble,” Zane said, shaking his head. “If you  _ actually  _ lost a dog down there I would just leave it be. I’ve had my fair share of wandering around these woods. Trust me, pretty much anything here can and will snap you in half. You’d look like a little piece of pink candy.”

“Maybe that’s what I choose to look like,” Nana said, turning her chin up in his direction.

“Not critiquing, just pointing it out,” he said with yet another eyeroll, shrugging. 

“I’ll just figure it out myself,” Nana decided, turning and looking back down into the darkness. Zane opened his mouth in disbelief.

Before anyone could do anything, Nana jumped straight into the hole, sliding down the carved trunks. Zane flung out his arms as if to stop her and Teony gasped, but she was already gone.

Zane stared at where she had just disappeared. “Is she  _ crazy _ ?” he asked, and Teony shook her head.

“She’s excited,” she sighed. Zane seemed torn for a moment, looking over his shoulder and then back at the hole. His eyes traveled in the direction of the slide, and he sighed too, shuffling in the direction it led.

“Come on,” he reluctantly said. “We might be able to get there before anything too violent happens.”

Teony jumped, scrambling to follow him as he took his skeleton horse by the reins and began to lead it down the hill.

~   
  


Nana felt as if she was sliding for hours, completely out of control of the velocity in which she was shooting down the carved pathway. The further she zoomed the darker it got. She strained her ears for the sound of barking, but for some reason other than the usual distant shrieking of the forest all she could hear was a crackling sound.

She just had time to process a sharp turn towards a rapidly approaching light before the slide tunnel let out and the ground dropped out from underneath Nana, sending her plummeting into something with tall walls.

She slammed onto the hard metal floor of whatever it was, the impact certainly leaving a bruise on her arm. She flinched, sitting up and looking around. Before she could wonder what this strange solid grey prison was, something small and furry bounded across the floor and into her arms.

She laughed, rubbing Celestia’s ears as she kiss-attacked her face again. “Hey, girl, hey!” Nana managed, holding her back. “Where are we?”

Placing Celestia on the ground, Nana stood up and did a slow spin, taking in the surroundings. It was round, smooth, and curiously warm. There was no ceiling, however, and she could see above to what looked like a larger hatch roof of a building above. Almost as if…

Nana blinked, looking at the pile of absolutely gargantuan chopped vegetables scattered around the edges. It was absurd, but…

“Celestia,” Nana whispered. “I know a cooking pot when I see one.”

Over the crackling sound that could only be the fire beneath them, Nana realized she could hear a steady  _ thunk thunk thunk _ , like someone chopping on a wooden cutting board. Nana gulped.

The candy metaphor wasn’t completely off, as it would turn out. It certainly seemed like Nana and Celestia had unfortunately found themselves as ingredients for someone’s meal.

The chopping stopped, and Nana looked up, eyes widening as bits of minced onion came flying through the air towards the pot. She snatched Celestia, running back and pressing herself against the wall as the little white bits came raining down all over the place. Whoever was doing the cooking didn’t seem to have any indication that there were two living beings in the pot.

“Um- excuse me?” Nana called, hoping her voice would be loud enough. “Hello? There’s a person in here!”

There was a short silence before another steady sort of  _ thump _ -ing started back up, this time like huge, heavy footsteps gradually getting closer to the pot. Nana stared up as an insanely tall shadow began to approach the open top, barely visible and only growing in the flickering firelight. 

She gulped down a gasp as a face the size of a small shed appeared in the opening, staring down at them. She only had a second to register a bald head, greenish skin, and a massive underbite before his expression twisted into confusion and he tilted the pot forward to get a better look.

Nana stumbled forward, tripping over a carrot slice and catching Celestia just in time to regain her balance. She could now see the giant’s stained shirt, as well as the absolutely enormous kitchen they were in. For someone the giant’s size, it was a small cottage, but for a normal sized human it was the size of two castles stacked on top of each other.

“MORE MEAT FOR SOUP!” the giant yelled, his huge face breaking into a grin. “MORE LUNCH FOR OLLIE!”

Nana tried to balance on the tilted wall of the pot, looking up at Ollie the giant pleadingly.

“No, no lunch! No eating us!” she said frantically. “We fell in here on accident! Can you please let us go?”

“OLLIE WANT LUNCH!” he simply replied, letting go of the pot and turning right back around to the assortment of food on the counter. Nana fell back again, slamming against the other side as Celestia skid across the bottom. Vegetable slices bounced everywhere.

Giants were another thing Nana had only ever heard about. She knew there were some rumored to be in the mountains not far from the kingdom, but they were reclusive, so they weren’t considered to be too much of a danger unless you went looking for them. Nana figured it would be a gross stereotype to say their only impression of a human (or meif’wa) would be animal, or more specifically, food.

As it would turn out that was fairly accurate.

Nana looked up over the rim of the pot. “We won’t taste good, I promise,” she called. “I’m basically skin and bones. And you’ll be coughing up hairballs for days.”

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Nana blew a loose lock of hair out of her face, thinking. This couldn’t be where the journey ended. Nana was NOT going to be cooked into soup before she could undo the spell on her family.

“I know about a million better recipes that don’t include meif’wa or dog,” she continued, yelling over the crackling fire. “Do you want me to help you try… um… ANYTHING else?”

The chopping stopped again, and Nana ran back to the wall, sensing another onslaught of chopped vegetables. “MEAT GOOD FOR LUNCH!” Ollie boomed, and sure enough, pieces of squash came flying over the top and rained down on the other ingredients. 

Celestia found a good clear spot in between a few slices and curled up, laying down on the warm bottom of the pot. The longer they stood there, the hotter it seemed to be getting. Surely it felt nice to Celestia after being in the snow for so long, but it only made Nana’s heart pound faster.

Nana thought harder, looking up. What options did they have?

Her eyes caught on one of the handles just visible over the rim. She glanced around her, thinking about materials. If she could just find something that could reach that high, they could climb. Like a rope.

Absent-mindedly, she pulled her braid over her shoulder and played with it for a moment. Then she stopped, looking down at the ribbon tied through it to the end.

Maybe.

But how to get Ollie to leave the room? Surely he would just push them back in.

She closed her eyes, desperately trying to remember what the kitchen looked like. There was nothing of particular intrigue, it was just a regular surprisingly conventional kitchen. There was a sink and shelves of cooking utensils. None of that could help her.

Her eyes popped open as an absolutely absurd thought occurred to her.

But they could. Theoretically.

She frowned at the stone walls of the pot, mind and heart racing. A ridiculous, cartoonish situation played out in her mind, the kind that her parents would have scolded her for describing.

But as long as it could work, she had to try.

“I feel bad for you, actually,” she called, cupping her hands around her mouth to make sure he heard. “I wish you could hear what kind of things the ghosts were saying!”

The chopping stopped. Nana pressed against the wall again, watching for vegetable slices- but none came.

“GHOSTS?” Ollie’s voice boomed. “OLLIE NO BELIEVE IN GHOSTS.”

“Oh, so he does know words with more than one syllable,” she mumbled. She cupped her hands again, calling out. “Well, you should! They really don’t want you to eat us. They’re being very… vocal about it.”

Once again, there came the heavy clunking of giant footsteps across the wooden floor. He looked over the top of the pot down at her, frowning.

“WHY… NOT?”

“The ghosts think eating meif’was and puppies is very wrong,” she said, her eyes wide as she looked up at him. “They’re very mad at you. I’d listen to them if I were in your shoes.”

Ollie scowled, clearly trying hard to process what she was saying. Under Nana’s breath, she softly began to whisper.

“ _ Rise. Lift. Float. _ ”

Ollie scratched his bald head, narrowing his beady eyes down at her. He tilted the pot forward slightly. “GHOSTS… WANT OLLIE LUNCH?”

“No,” Nana said. “The ghosts don’t want you to make lunch.”

“BUT OLLIE WANT LUNCH.”

“But the ghosts say no.”

He tilted the pot further forward and Nana continued to whisper, her eyes moving wildly around to look behind Ollie.

“ _ Fly. Float. Come forward. Move closer. _ ”

Celestia began to bark at something behind Ollie, but he continued to stare at Nana. “WHY GHOSTS NO TALK TO OLLIE?”

“Oh, they’ve tried to,” Nana said. “But you won’t listen. You made the soup they asked you not to. Like I said, you made them very mad.”

Another kind of warmth was sweeping through Nana, and it wasn’t from the fire below them. It tingled through her veins as her eyes widened.

“BUT OLLIE WANT LUNCH.”

“Well,” Nana said breathlessly, focusing on what was happening behind Ollie in the kitchen. “It looks to me like they don’t.”

Ollie, still holding the pot with one hand, turned around to see what she was looking at. Every single utensil in the kitchen, every knife, every fork, every pair of scissors or blade was hovering in the air, floating there unsuspended and centering around him. All pointed inward at him.

Ollie screamed, the sheer volume of his vocal chords shaking the pot as he let go frantically. Nana only had a second to yell over him.

“GET HIM!!” She cried, and the sounds of an entire kitchen’s worth of utensils whistling through the air joined Ollie’s screams and booming footsteps as he raced for the door. He plowed through it, knocking off the hinges as the knives and forks chased after him. Nana lay flat on the bottom of the pot, listening as Ollie ran further and further from the house and into the woods, actively pursued by his own belongings.

The adrenaline still running alongside newfound power in her veins, Nana jumped to her feet, grabbing a carrot that looked about the right size as she used her other hand to tug the dark pink ribbon out of her hair. She tied one end of it around the carrot, wrapping the other end around her hand. She tossed the carrot as far as she could, having to give it a few tries before it finally slid through the handle, catching on.

She hastily grabbed Celestia and began to climb, using her own hair ribbon as a rope. The cast iron walls of the pot didn’t do much for traction, but Nana used every ounce of strength in her body to pull herself up to the top. 

The distant sound of clattering metal and an angry giant rang out from somewhere in the forest, and Nana hastily made her way down the other side of the pot and off the nearby table. 

Barely even taking a second to catch her breath, she grasped Celestia in her arms and took off out the splintered doorway back into the forbidden forest, leaving the broiling pot and the utensil-less kitchen behind her and feeling a wild combination of fear-fueled hyperactivity and a sense of intense success.

Zane and Teony, who had been walking in the direction of the cottage for a while now, came to a stop when they heard approaching footsteps.

Nana came around the side of a thick tree, Celestia in one arm and the other grasping her long ribbon. All three of them stopped, seeing the others.

“Nana!” Teony gasped, smiling. “You’re ok? And you found Celestia!”

“I did,” Nana said, torn between happy to see Teony and baffled to see Zane. Celestia jumped out of her arms and ran to Zane, leaping around his ankles and trying to reach his face, tail wagging. He just continued to stare at Nana.

“What are you doing still here?” Nana asked, tilting her head.

“Well, we… were… we were on our way to help  _ you, _ ” he said. Nana raised her eyebrows.

“Why?”

“Because I figured you were about to be EATEN,” he said, his confusion clearly causing him a little frustration. “How are YOU here now?”

“Oh, right!” Nana gasped, turning excitedly back to Teony. “It was amazing, Teony! I used magic! I actually used my witch powers! That was the first time I ever  _ purposefully  _ made inanimate objects come to life, I thought it wouldn’t work, but it got us out!”

“Nana! That’s incredible! How did it feel?”

“Weirdly warm? And… sparkly, if that makes any sense? I just felt like I could tell the kitchen utensils to do something and they’d hear me, and they TOTALLY DID!”

“I thought you had to have a wand to do that!”

“Yeah, me too! But I mean, if you think about it, I guess we have to have some sort of magic just available to us without them, how else do you think people sprout wings on command?”

Zane’s head whipped back and forth between the two of them, wildly trying to keep up with the conversation. Celestia gave up on trying to reach his face and stuck to just licking his boots.

“Nana wait, your ribbon!” Teony suddenly said, staring at it. Nana lifted it up.

“Yeah, we had to use it too,” she said. “I didn’t trust myself enough to be able to float both of us out of-”

“No, it’s- it’s exactly your height!” Teony said. Nana frowned, looking at it.

“So?” she said, raising an eyebrow at her.

“A  _ measure of courage _ ,” Teony breathed. Nana’s eyes widened.

She grasped the tip, holding it up to the very top of her head and looking down to where it hung exactly at where her feet met the ground. She almost dropped it in surprise when it suddenly began to shimmer, catching a light from nowhere and glowing. It seemed to solidify slightly, becoming rigid in her hand. She let go carefully, and it continued to float and glow brightly in midair.

The three of them watched in astonishment as the glow faded and Nana reached out to catch it. But it wasn’t a ribbon anymore. It had transformed into a staff, still about Nana’s height, luminescent and crystal-like like it was carved from a gemstone. An ornate ribbon-like design was carved onto the lavender surface, and it was slightly wider at the top, like it was missing its topper.

“We found it,” Nana said slowly, holding the staff in both hands. “Teony. We found the measure of courage.”

“What is that?” Zane asked, carefully taking a step closer to look at it. Nana held it out so he could see.

“It’s the first part of three,” she explained. “We’re building the wand of light.”

Zane immediately scoffed, stepping away. “You’re not serious,” he said, glaring at her and losing all the wonder that had been on his face before. “The wand of light is just a fairytale. It’s not actually real.”

Nana frowned at him, looking back down at the staff. “I’m literally holding part of it right here. You just saw that happen.”

“How do you even know that’s what it’s supposed to look like?”

Nana huffed, watching him and trying to get a read. He certainly seemed to be reacting inconsistently. “We don’t. But this wand is probably the only thing that’s going to help me reverse a spell Damien put on my parents and several other people. So we’re having faith that it’s real. And I believe we just found our proof.”

“Damien? You think you can build a wand that’ll counter his?”

Nana continued to look at Zane. At his eyes, his demeanor, his wand. He definitely seemed committed to appearing serious, maybe even scary. He was used to intimidating people. He covered up any interest he had in hope with skepticism, but not because that was his instinct.

She could tell he’d been through a lot. Maybe recently, maybe not. He’d experienced change. He still was.

She could also tell he cared more about  _ fairytales  _ than he was letting on. But he didn’t want any of them to know that.

He was also giving her a funny look, and she realized she had been watching him for too long.

“Damien gave us three days before his spell becomes permanent,” she said, bringing the staff down by her side. “And I think trying to put together this wand is better than doing nothing!”

She smiled, putting her hands on her hips in a way that dared him to disagree with her. He narrowed his eyes at her, then looked at the staff.

“Fine,” he finally said, waving a hand and turning around. “Whatever floats your boat. Maybe that enthusiasm will get you somewhere. Good luck.”

He took the skeleton horse’s reins again, leading it away. Teony came to lean down by Nana’s ear.

“Good riddance,” she whispered. “Don’t know why Mr. Ray of Sunshine stuck around as long as he did.”

Nana shook her head, leaning down to pick Celestia back up. Celestia watched Zane walk away, her eyes glued to his back.

“Not the ugliest man I’ve seen, though,” Teony added quietly.

Nana blinked at her.

“Don’t give me that, you were looking into his eyes for like five minutes,” Teony said accusingly. 

“Dunno, I guess I didn’t think about that,” she said vaguely. Her mind began to wander as she suddenly felt torn again, this time between hopping on Teony and leaving the forest and something else.

Something about Zane. There was a piece of himself that he had almost shown them, a hopeful side he obviously didn’t intend for anyone to see. She could tell he wasn’t the kind of person who let himself seem vulnerable to just anyone- and yet he stopped whatever he had been doing before to help some stranger in the forbidden forest. That was what had stuck out in Nana’s mind so much, not the dark clothes or the rough exterior.

Maybe he needed this just as much as she did.

“Zane, wait,” Nana said, spinning around to face him. He stopped, looking over his shoulder back at her.

“Are you… good at wizard stuff?” she asked, looking down at the twig wand by his side. He frowned at her.

“I’d say so,” he said. “Why?”

“Well…” Nana said, glancing back at Teony and Celestia. “Obviously I’m very new to magic. I’m sure you could tell I was a magics-user when we met, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I really think we could use your help,” she said, trying not to sound too pleading. “We’ve already found the measure of courage. We just need to find the ring of love and the lost crystal.”

“I really think it’s a waste of time,” Zane said, shaking his head and continuing to walk. “And I have business elsewhere.”

“Please,” Nana called. “My whole family is at stake here. My kingdom. I could pay you?”

“Don’t need money.”

“Do you know anything about Esmond’s crystal? Could you at least tell us that?”

Zane stopped walking at that. He dropped his horse’s reins, turning back to look at her. 

“Esmond’s crystal?”

“Yeah,” said Nana, a bit surprised. “We’re looking for that too. I think that’s what the third piece of the wand is referring to.”

“You’re looking for Esmond’s crystal.”

“Yes.”

Zane thought for a second, looking at the ground. Nana wished so badly she could see inside his head for real.

“Alright,” he said with a shrug. “I happen to be looking for the same thing. I’ll join you.”

“Seriously?” Teony said, but Nana grinned, jumping.

“Thank you, Zane!” she said, more of a squeal. She ran towards him and hugged him before he could protest, Celestia feeding off her excitement and sprinting after her. Nana let go, running back to Teony as Celestia continued in her endeavor to jump high enough to reach Zane’s face.

Nana climbed on top of Teony’s back, pulling her leg over the side. When she straightened up, she saw that Zane had reluctantly picked up Celestia and was holding her as he climbed on his own horse.

“Let’s get this over with,” he mumbled.

“Do you have any idea of where to start?” Nana asked, Teony trotting up beside the skeleton horse.

“Maybe,” Zane said, settling Celestia in his lap. She seemed perfectly content to stay with him. “Follow my lead. I was heading this direction anyway, so it shouldn’t be too long of a journey.”

With that, he gave the horse’s boney ribcage a sharp kick, and they trotted off further into the trees with Teony close behind.


	5. chapter 5

~

When Zane said it wouldn’t be too long of a journey, what he didn’t say was that it was going to take all night.

For hours, Teony trotted behind Zane’s skeleton steed as the group made their way out of the forbidden forest and back into mountain terrain. The land around them shifted from trees and dead grass to open skies and rocks and snow, Nana eating her way through some of the food she had packed as the frigid night air kept her wide awake.

The longer they traveled, Nana thought about her parents, frozen solid back home.

Three days.

And one already gone.

Zane had told her that they were going to see Castor, some sort of gems dealer. Why he had to do his business way up in the mountains, Nana didn’t know, but something was better than nothing. Zane said that there was a slim chance Castor would have at least heard more about Esmond’s crystal than they had, and might even have a connection to it.

Just as the sky was starting to fade from a dark grey to more of a morning blue, the group came up over a rocky surface overlooking a small snowy valley. There, just visible under a mound of snow weighing down the already dinky roof, was a shack out all by itself. Some of the wooden boards on the porch had fallen through and the paneling on the walls was barely intact, splintering.

“This is our spot,” Zane called over his shoulder as Nana came up next to him. She wrinkled her nose down at the tiny structure. Of course it was.

Nana shook off the initial reaction. No need to complain. They were making progress.

“Cozy!” she said brightly, and Zane scowled back at her.

They made their way down the hill, leaving Teony and the skeleton horse back by the rocks while Zane and Nana dismounted to head inside.

Celestia, who had taken quite a liking to Zane and hadn’t left his side since they met, ran in circles around his feet as they walked, making it difficult for him not to trip over her.

“Castor calls himself a ‘trader of fine objects,’” Zane said as he carefully stepped over Celestia’s wagging tail. “Most people just call him a thief.”

“Is he a wizard too?”

“No, but that doesn’t stop him from getting involved in tons of wizard affairs anyway. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him but he knows everything there is to know about anything, including gems.  _ Especially  _ magic gems.”

Nana stepped ahead of Zane, turning the rusty doorknob and pushing open the front door. A little bell rang overhead as she stepped inside, and she began to look around. Shelves covered the walls and a handful of dusty bookcases were scattered around. The dust floated in the air, illuminated by the rays of sun barely poking through the otherwise boarded windows. All over the shelves were an assortment of items, all looking to be at least slightly valuable, from decorated porcelain vases to pearl necklaces to bags filled with sparkling gemstones.

Nana looked up, seeing movement on the other side of the gated desk area on the opposite side of the room.

“Eh, we’re closed, we’re closed!” a voice called crankily. A man appeared on the other side of the wooden lattice, waving them away. He had a mop of messy brown hair as well as a red bandana tied around his forehead and a monocle hanging lopsided on one eye. When he caught sight of Nana, however, his eyes widened and he straightened the monocle.

“Oh!” he gasped, looking closer at her through the gate. “I can make an exception. Of course. What can I do for such a fine young lady?”

Before Nana could respond appropriately, Zane came around the other side of the bookshelf annoyedly. “Drop the act, Castor,” he said, getting in front of her. “We’re here on business.”

Castor’s face immediately fell, the charm falling away just as quickly as it had appeared. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, sitting back in a chair. “Here to threaten me for more illegal potion ingredients?”

Nana looked at Zane curiously, who shook his head dismissively. “You know things are different now, Castor,” he said, approaching the counter. “We’re here looking for a very specific rare gem.”

Castor squinted at Zane, then back to Nana. He looked between the two of them for a moment before grinning slyly. 

“A rare gem, eh?” he said. “Do I mayhaps hear  _ wedding bells  _ ringing?”

Nana suddenly felt as if she’d lost the ability to speak entirely, jumping as if she’d been shocked and turning to look in alarm at Zane, who was mirroring her action and expression down to the detail. “No!” they both said loudly and quickly at the same time. Zane shook his head and Nana waved her arms in front of her.

“You’ve got the wrong idea.”

“We’re not- nothing like-”

“Because if you are,” Castor went right on excitedly, reaching off to the side and pulling out a small wooden box. “I have this  _ excellent  _ find that I just came across this past month-”

“But it’s not for-!”

Castor popped open the box, revealing a small silver ring with a chicken-shaped gemstone adorning the top. Nana stopped stammering to stare at it.

“Poultry is very in this season,” Castor said, raising his eyebrows up and down. Zane pressed his hands against his temples as if he had a headache coming on.

“We don’t need a ring,” he grumbled. “We wanted to know if you had any information on Esmond’s crystal.”

Disappointed, Castor closed the box and slid it away. He began to scratch his head, appearing to be thinking as hard as he could.

“Esmond’s crystal,” he mused, tapping his chin. “Crystal of Esmond… hmmm… it sounds familiar, but…”

He shook his head. “Goodness. My old brain can be so foggy sometimes. I can hardly remember. It’s right on the tip of my tongue. But…”

His dramatic pained expression slipped into a knowing smile. “Perhaps a gift of some kind could jog my memory.”

Zane groaned and rolled his eyes, Nana crossing her arms. Of course he was talking about a bribe.

“Something like…” Castor said, his eyes drifting down to the stick-like wand on Zane’s belt. “Well… a functioning wizard’s wand made from the branch of an autumnwood tree… that’s very rare indeed.”

Nana looked down at the stick, her curiosity only growing. She’d seen a good deal of variety in wands so far, and hadn’t stopped to think too hard about Zane’s extremely underwhelming one. It seemed important enough to him, though, and she knew they’d have to find some other way to appease Castor.

To her surprise, though, his hand began to drift down towards it.

“No,” she said quickly, holding out a hand to stop him. Her mouth and body seemed to be moving faster than she could think, working quickly to prevent Zane from handing over something that clearly mattered to him.

Nana frowned, reaching into her bag and pulling out her ice skates that she had taken from the palace. They gleamed in the light coming from the windows, sparkling with tiny embedded gemstones and expensive material.

“How about these?” she said, sliding them across the counter. Zane stared at them, raising an eyebrow at Nana.

Castor picked the skates up, looking them over and holding up the monocle to see better. He smiled, satisfied, and slid them behind the counter. “They’re quite nice,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Zane whispered. Nana nodded, looking at Castor instead of him. She ignored the slight pain in her gut.

“The crystal?” she reminded him. Castor nodded, adjusting the bandana around his head. “I do think I remember something,” he said. “An old story. You’re not the first to go looking for this gem- there was a man who was trying to track it down as well, a historian of some kind trying to put back together what we know about magic history. He was able to track down all three pieces of the crystal, but once he did, he knew there would be other people coming after him. And he was right, it wasn’t long before one of the shards was stolen. He was convinced the crystal had cursed him.”

“What happened to him?”

“Well, whether he was actually cursed or not is up for debate. But he was real careful with the other two shards, took them up in the mountains and hid them somewhere. Not sure what he was planning on doing with them. He died fairly soon after that. This map is all he left behind.”

Castor bent over, rummaging through something behind the desk. He pulled out an old folded paper, browned and falling apart at the edges. But Nana came forward, snatching it before Castor could ask for any more bribes.

“You’re sure that’s all you know?” she asked, slipping it into her bag. Castor began to look thoughtful again. 

“There could be more,” he said. “But my memory-”

“Nope, this is good enough,” Nana interrupted hastily, turning and heading back for the door. “Let’s go Zane. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Zane hurried to keep up with her, following her out the door.

Behind them, Castor watched them leave. He grinned to himself as the door closed behind them.

They had helped him out in more ways than they realized.

And so they were off again, this time Nana on Teony in the lead, following the directions on the map further up the mountains.

The snowfall had started up again, and it seemed to be coming down heavier the higher they went up the mountainside. 

Before it was afternoon, the snowfall turned into a blizzard. Nana could barely see the parchment through the thick snowflakes, squinting against the harsh winds. She could feel Teony shaking beneath her as they climbed, and the blizzard felt like it was tearing through Nana’s skin. Zane said nothing behind her as they went on, huddling behind the wrap around his face.

She felt fragile, exhausted, and freezing. But as the sun started to go down, bringing the last of the light with it, a sense of panic began to well up inside her.

Time was running out faster than they could look.

It was when they finally reached what appeared to be the very peak of the mountain they were climbing, overlooking the impossibly steep drop below, that Nana felt it all spill over.

Nothing. There was nothing.

Tears being blown off her face as soon as they fell, she jumped off of Teony and ran to the ledge overlooking the mountainside as the snowstorm howled around her. She thought she might have heard Zane call her name over the wind, but she continued to stare at the map and their surroundings, willing for there to be something,  _ anything _ at all that could help them.

But the map led nowhere. There was nothing but snow, ice, and empty air.

“Nana!” Zane repeated, jumping off his own horse to come up to her. “There’s nothing  _ here _ . We need to find somewhere to settle out of the storm.”

“W-we can’t,” Nana sobbed, feeling her grip on the situation beginning to slip. Her cheerful positivity was crumbling, her sense of hope so much duller than it had been before. “We can’t s-stop now. We just need to keep looking. We need to look HARDER.”

“Teony can’t GO any further!” Zane yelled, pointing back at Teony, who was barely even holding her head up. “We need to BREAK.”

Nana felt so utterly helpless, only able to stand and watch as the storm blotted out what was left of the sun. Another day gone, just like that.

She turned to look back at Teony and Zane, who were flinching against the cold. The small floating fireballs Zane had created to follow them had been blown to tiny flames, no bigger than candles. Celestia huddled against Teony’s neck, head buried in her mane.

Zane was right. They had no choice.

“We shouldn’t have trusted Castor, that was my mistake,” he said, holding out a hand to her. “There’s a cave opening right over there. Come on.”

Hand shaking, Nana took Zane’s.

It wasn’t until they had gotten all five members of the group safely inside the cave and out of the blizzard that Nana finally realized how exhausted she really was. They went all the way in, away from the howling wind and snow and against the back wall. Teony nestled against a corner, tucking her wings close around her and covering Celestia, who curled up in the feathers and was asleep in seconds.

Zane sat down in the center of the cave with a few pieces of tinder, arranging them in a circle and shooting a fire spell at them. Before too much longer, a good sized flame was going, sending flickering warm orange light across the walls.

Nana laid against the wall by herself, watching the flames dance vacantly. Though a sort of peacefulness had settled, with her friends sleeping and Zane crouched down tending the fire, she couldn’t bring herself to fall asleep.

Zane glanced up after a minute. He frowned, pulling the scarf down so his whole face could be seen again.

“I sort of thought you’d be chattier,” he said, setting his wand down on the cave floor. Nana wasn’t sure how to respond, so she didn’t.

“Are… you ok?”

“Not especially,” she muttered.

Zane looked around uncomfortably for a moment, then came around to the other side of the fire and sat down across from her.

“You’ve been so bright and cheerful this whole time,” he whispered, glancing back at the sleeping horses. “What happened to forget-danger-I’m-too-cute-to-die?”

Nana looked up to meet his eyes, seeing that he was smiling sarcastically at her. The smile slipped off his face after a second.

“Ok, that’s a little insensitive,” he whispered, pulling his knees to his chest. “Sorry. I know we’re in kind of a rough spot.”

“My family didn’t like it when I acted like that either,” Nana whispered at the ground. “I really should know better by now. I never listened to them because I thought they just didn’t understand. But look where we are now.”

“They… didn’t?” Zane said, tilting his head. “Why not?”

“They just expected me to be more mature,” Nana muttered. “Less shallow.”

Zane’s frown deepened. “What part of being cheerful and imaginative comes across as shallow?”

Nana looked up at him again, feeling the tiniest piece of all the anxiety and guilt inside of her loosen. “Is it not?”

“No,” Zane said, wrinkling his nose. “That attitude is what’s gotten us as far as we’ve come so far.”

“I thought you thought I was annoying.”

“Well,” he sighed, looking up at the ceiling and rocking back and forth, avoiding eye contact. “I, uh… we have our differences. You do you and I’ll do me.”

“So, you… don’t think I’m shallow? Or annoying?”

“I don’t,” he said, finally looking at her face again. “Why are you acting like you’ve never heard anything like that before?”

Nana’s exhausted word-depleted emotionally overloaded brain cycled through a handful of responses, none of them really seeming to be the right one. She shook her head and shrugged.

Zane looked at the floor for a moment before exhaling, pushing himself back to his feet. 

“You should get some sleep,” he said, turning back to walk towards his horse. “We can get started again once the blizzard dies down.”

Nana didn’t argue. She shifted onto her knees, crawling across the floor towards Teony. She laid against one of her folded wings, resting her head against Teony’s warm coat. 

She found it easier to close her eyes now, listening to the crackling of the fire and the snow falling outside.


	6. chapter 6

~ 

When the morning came, the end of the blizzard came with it.

Nana walked out of the cave, Zane and Teony behind her. A fresh coat of sparkling snow coated the ground, the sun shining down on it in a crystal-clear bright blue sky.

Nana breathed it in, stopping at the edge and looking at the mountains around them. She could see now that some of what she had thought were mountains before were actually tall ice spires, like icebergs reaching up into the sky. The sunlight seemed to make their tips glow.

Celestia came running out of the cave as well, sliding up beside Nana and barking out over the mountains at the light.

Nana understood her interest. Something felt surreal about the way the light of dawn was shining off the ice.

“Look at that,” she said, pointing ahead as Zane came to stand next to her. “Have you ever seen ice glow like that?”

Zane crossed his arms, the light reflecting in his eyes. “Ice is water, isn’t it? Water reflects light.”

They stood there as a chilly breeze blew through, swirling puffs of snow out into the open air. Teony came to a stop on Nana’s other side, her mane fluttering in the wind.

“Our last day,” Nana said, watching the snow.

“Our last hope,” Teony agreed.

Nana looked down at the ground, something about her wording striking a memory in her head. Something about the lost crystal.

“Maybe that’s it,” Nana whispered, looking back up at the bright light on top of the ice. Teony and Zane both turned to her quizzically.

“‘Hope’s eternal flame,’ right?” she continued, holding a hand out towards the ice. She could feel that tiny spark of excitement growing inside of her again as she thought through it. “That’s how the book described the lost crystal we needed.  _ Lit by hope’s eternal flame.  _ What says hope more than the dawn?”

Zane was quiet, but Teony stared wide-eyed up at the glow.

“Do you think Esmond’s crystal is up there?” she asked. Nana turned, to her, smiling.

“Would it be crazy to say I can feel it?” she said breathlessly. Teony gave a small smile back to her.

“Well, can you  _ feel  _ how we’re gonna get up there?” Zane asked.

Nana turned around to look back at him for a second. Then she took a step back and grabbed one of Teony’s wings, presenting it wordlessly to him.

“Oh _ kay _ ,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Is she gonna carry  _ both  _ of us plus the dog?”

Nana’s grin widened for just a moment, taking note of the fact that Zane had also just accepted Celestia as part of the group. So he WAS a secret softie. 

“I can try,” Teony said slowly, shaking her wings out. “Hop on.”

After some adjusting and rearranging, Nana sat in the front, leaning forward and hanging onto Teony’s neck with Celestia in her lap. Zane sat behind her, his arms around her waist. They had tried to find another way for him to grab onto something, but the only other option was just hanging by Teony’s tail, so Nana it was. The extra body heat was making her feel overly warm.

At least, she assumed that’s what it was.

“Ready?” Teony said at the very front, or underneath. Celestia yipped, and Nana laughed, feeling like Celestia had just answered for her. “Let’s do this,” she said, lowering her head and looking forward to the drop.

Teony broke out into a canter, then a gallop. She spread out her wings on either side of them, and Zane quickly moved his leg out of the way. Nana wondered if he’d ever ridden on a pegasus before. She figured the chances were slim, and felt momentarily proud of herself for having some sort of magical experience that he didn’t.

Teony’s hooves left the ledge, and they were off, wings flapping as they ascended into the blue sky through the mountains.

And then they immediately plummeted.

Nana screeched and pressed herself against Teony’s neck as she frantically extended her wings further and flapped harder, regaining her balance. Zane snatched his wand out of his belt, raising it.

But he didn’t have to do anything. Teony shakily rose back into the air, wings flapping, continuing their ascent. 

“I’m good, we’re good!” she called back breathlessly. “Got it!”

Nana pressed a hand to her heart as they flew. Zane put the wand back in its loop.

“Proud of you!” Nana said with a firm pat, feeling like her entire life had just flashed before her eyes.

~

Back in the rocky snowy valley where Castor’s shack was, a griffin descended from the sky, landing just outside.

Three things hit the ground- two boots and the end of an ominous green and silver staff.

Damien left the griffin outside, looking over the sketchy location with a distasteful sneer. He rolled his eyes, going for the front door and heading inside.

The bell jingled as he came in, and Castor on the other side of the room looked up quickly.

“You sent for me?” Damien drawled, looking around at the collection of artifacts and goods around on the shelves.

“I did!” Castor stuttered, jumping off his seat on the other side of the desk. He came around towards Damien, carrying with him a closed pouch.

“So, you have information on the princess?” Damien said, finally turning his attention to Castor as he approached, with at least a little interest. “Did she come by here?”

Castor opened his mouth to speak, then paused, looking up to the ceiling thoughtfully. 

“Well, I  _ think  _ so,” he ventured, rubbing his chin. “Perhaps my memory could use a little persuading.”

Damien rolled his eyes, withholding a groan. But he had come prepared. He dropped a heavy bag that jingled musically on the table between them, and Castor grinned at it.

“A most generous donation,” he said, bending over in a clumsy sort of bow. “As always, your visits are much appreciated. Your powers are unmatched by any that I’ve-”

“Get ON WITH IT,” Damien growled. Castor nodded quickly, wringing his hands.

“Of course, of course,” he stammered. “The meif’wa princess did come by here yesterday. Accompanied by Zane, a wizard from the planes region. Gave me these in exchange for information,”

He pulled open the pouch, showing Damien the expensive skates. Damien nodded at them. They were certainly hers.

“Information on what?”

“Esmond’s crystal,” Castor said. “They’re trying to track it down. Or at least part of it. If I didn’t know any better I’d say they were trying to build that wand of light.”

Damien frowned at the floor, shaking his head. “Wand of light,” he murmured. “Oh, she  _ does  _ think fast. And what did you tell them?”

“Sent them and their pegasus friend up into the range that direction,” Castor said, nodding off to his left. “Not sure how far they made it. Heck of a blizzard blew through overnight. For all I know they either froze to death or got blown off into the gorge.”

“Not very likely,” Damien said, turning on his heel and walking back towards the door. “A wizard and a witch? They’re not as frail as you. I’ll have to meet them before they can make it too far.”

“If you say so,” Castor said, quickly following him towards the door. He cut him off, standing between his glowing staff and the exit with an uneven grin. Damien raised an eyebrow at him.

“I would like some compensation for my assistance, of course,” Castor said politely.

“I already paid you, you useless urchin.”

“Well… your generosity is much appreciated,” Castor said, unmoving, and wiggling his eyebrows knowingly. 

Damien put a hand on his hip impatiently, lifting the staff above the ground slightly as it began to light up with the same cold blue light as before. Castor’s eyes flicked up to it nervously, the slimy fake charisma vanishing.

“I think your days of stepping all over people are finished,” Damien said thoughtfully as he moved the staff between them. “ _ Level him _ .”

Castor caught on to what was happening a second too late, and turned to bolt. But the beam of light shot out from the staff, overtaking him and stopping him in his tracks.

When the light faded, Damien grinned down at the floor.

“Looks like it’s time for everyone else to walk all over YOU!” he cackled, continuing to walk out the door. He made sure to stomp purposefully on the new doormat on his way out- the flattened Castor flinching under his boot.

Damien sauntered back out into the snow, re-attaching his bag of money to his belt. He approached the griffin, who pawed the snow impatiently and made a short screeching noise.

“Let’s go explore that mountain range, shall we?” Damien said with a smirk, patting the griffin’s nose fondly.

~

The tall ice tower seemed bigger as the group approached, and by the time Teony was finally on top of it, it was easily the size of the ledge they had been on moments ago.

She touched down on the snowy surface, leaving hoofprints that showed the blue ice below. Nana was nervous for a moment that it might have been too fragile to support all of them, but when her feet hit the surface, she could feel that it was just as solid as any other mountain.

Not far from where they had landed was something carved into the ice, but it wasn’t entirely visible under the snow. Nana walked up to it, dusting some of it off. The sun illuminated the strange writing, characters in some sort of language she’d never seen before.

“I had to learn a few different languages growing up,” she said with a frown, tracing the letters with her finger. “But this is new.”

Zane came to her other side, brushing the last of the snow off. Teony, Celestia still on her back, came to look as well.

“It’s no common language in our land,” she said, looking around. “Could it be a puzzle of some kind that opens a door?”

Nana continued to watch Zane with interest, seeing his eyes moving along the lines of text. He looked like he was reading it.

“Beware,” he read slowly. “Take only what you need, but never from greed.”

Before either of them could react, the ice began to rumble slightly, and a square in the ground off to their right formed. It caved inward, separating into steps and lowering down into the ground. Before too much longer, a staircase had carved itself into the ice, leading down into the spire itself.

“That answers that,” Zane said, crossing his arms.

“You can read that?” Nana said, pointing at the carving. Zane shrugged, walking towards the staircase.

“It’s an old wizard language,” he explained. “It’s sort of classically taught back at the guild. For like, esteemed families and whatnot.”

As he began to test the staircase, Teony leaned down by Nana’s ear again.

“He’s a  _ classically trained  _ wizard?” she said, with a bit of a giggle. “Is that even a thing?”

“I mean, unless he’s lying,” Nana shrugged. “But I believe him.”

Nana followed Zane down the staircase, Teony following carefully behind her. Together, the three of them began to descend down the ice staircase down into the blue-lit tunnel with Celestia bounding alongside them. The bright sun from outside illuminated the slightly translucent walls, making the air itself seem to glow as they walked, their breath coming out in puffs.

Once they reached a certain level, the stairs dropped into a smoother surface, twisting and wrapping around a circular drop that spiraled down so far they couldn’t see the bottom. Icicles hung from the ceiling and stairs, creating a very tight walking space. The further down the spiral went, the smaller it seemed to become. At one point it looked to be like less than a foot of flat surface. Nana glanced back nervously at Teony, who already was having to keep all her limbs very close together to fit.

It was going to be a long trip.

“Alright…” Nana called, putting her back to the wall to try and slide slowly down the spiral. “Everyone watch your step.”

They continued down further, half stepping half sliding down the ice spiral. This bit felt a good deal less sturdy than the stairs before, and every step Nana took felt like she could potentially shatter the whole thing and go straight through. She considered just riding Teony down, but there was barely any room for her wingspan, and the thought of two powerful pegasus wings flapping around in that tight fragile space wasn’t especially encouraging.

So they continued to walk, carefully.

They meticulously made their way closer to the bottom, or at least what Nana hoped was the bottom. Somehow they were all able to fit across the tiny walkspace, going one by one and very slowly. They came through an opening in the ice at the bottom, leading out into a larger open space.

The four of them walked across a long bridge made of ice, every so often an icicle breaking off beneath them and falling down to the depths below. Nana never heard it shatter.

On the other side of the bridge, in the side of the jagged blue ice, she could see the same bright glow that they had been able to see from the mountains. There was no bridge to it, though, only a very tiny ledge.

Perfect. More careful tip-toeing. 

They got into single file again, Nana taking the lead and carefully edging along the wall. She was just looking up again to see how close they were to the light when her foot landed on a loose rock, and it broke out of the ice, falling and causing her to lose her balance.

She yelped, waving her arms and pitching forward as the ice underneath her started to crack and crumble. Zane lurched forward, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the edge. He wrapped an arm around her middle, holding her away from the crumbling ground she had almost fallen through.

He let go as she grabbed the wall, catching her breath.

“Thanks,” she whispered, looking down into the endless drop.

“Anytime,” he replied.

They continued on, stepping even more carefully than before. Nana didn’t miss that Zane was now traveling closer to her, one of his arms always at least a foot away.

They finally made it to the hole in the wall, an entrance to another, much less steep and open staircase. They helped each other over the ledge, and finally onto solid ground. 

The second Celestia leapt over the gap, however, she tumbled head over heels and fell against the wall, slipping on a carved slope next to the steps. Once again, the husky puppy found herself sliding straight down a slope and away from Nana, barking the whole way.

“Oh, Celestia, not again!” Nana gasped, spinning away from the others and taking off down the stairs. Zane and Teony followed, and they ran, chasing Celestia down the ice slide.

This staircase was much shorter than the one before it, and they reached the bottom quickly, Nana ignoring the contents of the room for one second to search for Celestia. She didn’t have to look far.

Nana stopped in her tracks, mouth falling open as she took in the icy chamber they had just entered. Celestia had fallen straight into the largest pile of gemstones Nana had ever seen, heaps and heaps of ice crystals stacking up in every corner as high up as Nana’s waist. They made the walls sparkle, reflecting the sunrays in every direction. Zane came running down the steps behind her, stopping to stare as well.

“Looks like we’re in the right place,” he breathed.

Nana’s eyes fell on where the light seemed to be shining directly, the sunlight hitting the opposite corner in a way that illuminated the rest of the room. There were two ice pedestals, separated by a pile of gemstones. On each of the pedestals were two almost identical shards of crystal, rounded on an edge or two, like they had once been a part of a larger gem. Each of them seemed to contain a soft greenish flame of their own inside the glassy surface.

Nana carefully stepped over a few piles to walk towards the shards, watching them glimmer. There was something familiar about them.

“We actually found Esmond’s crystal,” Zane said from behind her. “Well… mostly.”

“Two shards,” Nana said, approaching the larger one. “The third one… is it on Damien’s staff?”

“It must be.”

Nana reached out, the sun shining on her hand and sleeve as she took the shard off the pedestal and held it in front of her. She expected it to be very cold after being around Damien. Instead it was warm.

She stepped back, holding it in her hands. This shard was going to save her family.

She saw movement in the corner of her eye, and looked up to see Zane stepping across the pile as well to reach out carefully to the other shard.

“Zane, no,” she said quickly, holding out her other hand. “The warning. We can’t take anything out of greed.”

“I read it, Nana,” he grumbled, shooting her an annoyed look. She flinched as he took the shard, holding it in his hand and looking down at it.

Nana looked around, waiting for some kind of reaction from the cave.

Nothing.

She blinked at Zane, who was slipping the shard into his pocket. “I guess we’re ok?” she said, more of a question than a statement. Just as he was turning back around to face her, though, the ground began to shake.

Nana opened her mouth to yell for him to put it back, but then she noticed something else off to the side. She spun around, seeing Celestia rolling around in the pile of gems with one in her mouth like a chew toy.

“Celestia, no!” Zane and Nana both yelled at the same time, icicles beginning to fall from the ceiling. Nana shoved her shard of the crystal in her bag as the ceiling began to cave in, Zane rushing forward to snatch the dog off the ground. They turned to follow Teony back up the staircase, but the ceiling had already fallen in, revealing the large open pit from before.

“Hop on!” Teony yelled over the rumble, turning to offer them her back. “We’re going to have to fly!”

Nana didn’t argue, jumping up and helping Zane as he one-handedly clambered on while holding Celestia. Not waiting for them to get comfortable, Teony spread her wings and took off, flapping as she ran and taking to the air. Ice smashed all around them, the very walls starting to crumble. Whoever had set up the security of this place did not intend for any thieves to make it out alive.

Teony shot through the large open area, dodging falling icicles and boulders of pure frozen force as they rained down on every side. Nana ducked out of the way of a cascade of snow falling from a ledge above, and Teony ducked under the debris to start shooting up the collapsing tunnel.

The sound of the ice falling was deafening, the shattering and pounding following them by nearly an inch as Teony soared upwards. Nana and Zane hung on tight as a light appeared ahead- getting smaller as they approached.

The second before they could make it out, a huge chunk of ice fell in their path in front of the exit- but Teony flung herself in a loop, shooting out a hole above them instead.

They burst into the daylight, the ground behind them cracking. Teony stretched her wings out all the way, able to glide through the air back towards the mountains. Nana craned her head around, watching as the huge ice tower began to crumble and collapse, falling to the ground and making the mountains themselves seem to rumble.

All this for two pieces of a magic rock.

Nana wasn’t able to breathe properly again until they had landed, everyone standing on the solid rock of the mountain outside the cave from the night before. As Zane was sliding off with Celestia, Nana came to the edge, watching the once-tall and glowing spindle disappear into the snow.

“That,” she said, clutching her bag. “Was  _ too close. _ ”

“But we got what we needed, didn’t we?” Zane said, placing a wriggly Celestia on the ground. 

“We did,” Nana said, turning and running back to Teony. She tackle-hugged her neck, squeezing her and burying her face in her mane. “Teony, that was AMAZING. YOU WERE AMAZING!”

“Thank you,” Teony said, sounding completely out of breath as she nuzzled the top of Nana’s head. “That was… exhilarating.”

Nana backed away, reaching into her bag and pulling out the crystal shard. She held it in the light, watching the soft green flame dance within. Now that she could see it better, the crystal itself also seemed to be ringed with a gold sort of hue.

“All we need now is the ring of love, right?” Teony asked, her eyes on the gem as well. “We’re so close. Surely we can manage to find one.”

Nana glanced at Zane, who thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that.” 

Nana began to think as well, running through everything they already had in her head. Maybe the ring they were looking for wasn’t something specific that could only be found in one place, like she had originally thought. It all seemed to be more subjective than that. The “measure of courage” had simply been a measurement of her own courage, and there was nothing inherently magical about her hair ribbon. 

So, what could a ring of love be? An engagement ring? A circle of close people?

“Do you think… we could make one?” she ventured, looking back up at Zane. He crossed his arms, looking out at the mountain range lost in thought.

“Like… magically?”

“I don’t know. You’re the expert.”

Zane looked back to her, pursing his lips. He finally shrugged.

“I don’t see why we can’t give it a shot,” he said.

The group eventually decided to go back inside the cave, since the fire was still going from the night before and it was warmer and a bit less exposed than sticking around outside.

Celestia had been a bit whiny since they had taken away her new toys, so Nana and Teony had sat down with her and were taking turns playing fetch with a stick they had found outside. Zane sat on the other side of the fire on his own, hunched over the light with his wand out, muttering to himself.

Teony had just taken Celestia’s stick in her mouth and was dragging it around for her to chase, and Nana sat back against the wall to watch. She looked down, seeing that she had sat down on the strap of Zane’s bag.

Curious, she tilted her head to see what was inside without poking around. She saw what looked like a stack of books.

She looked around, making sure everyone was otherwise preoccupied. She then opened the flap further, the spines and covers of the books being illuminated by the firelight.

On top, to Nana’s surprise, was an old fairytale book about a magical princess that she had read growing up. There was a bookmark about halfway in.

She slid it aside, looking at the others. A story about a talking tree. A book all about a mythical royal family that lived a long time ago. A thick volume that was a collection of fairytales, each one sparking nostalgic memories of stories Nana had loved her whole life that her sisters eventually grew out of.

Nana looked up, watching Zane’s turned back as he quietly cast spells.

She left Teony to play with Celestia on her own, crawling across the floor towards Zane. 

“I don’t think you’re as edgy as you pretend to be,” she said outright, sitting down nearby. Slowly, he blinked and turned around to look at her.

“Um… where is that coming from?”

“Don’t laugh,” Nana said as he turned to face her. “But I think it’s part of my magic ability to sort of be able to see into people’ souls. That, and you made fun of me for believing in fairytales when I know for a fact you believe in them too.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Zane said a little too quickly, directing his attention back to the rough ring-shaped stone in front of him. He tapped it with the wand and it shook slightly, then broke in half.

“I saw your books,” Nana said. He angrily opened his mouth, probably to nag at her for looking through his things, but she spoke over him before he could. 

“I want to know your story, Zane,” she said. “You know all about me and where I came from. Where did you come from? And, what about your wand? And why did you take the other shard?”

Zane watched the fire, letting his wand arm drop. He finally sighed, sitting down all the way and facing her.

“I grew up in the wizards’ guild in the planes region, just like Castor said,” he began, looking at the ground instead of Nana. She sat back, listening intently. “Spent most of my life that way. Training with the others. I… did have a family, my parents being pretty respected in the surrounding kingdoms. Everyone got really excited when they had a son.”

“So you had a lot of expectations on you.”

“No, not me,” he explained. “My brother. He’s sort of grown into one of the patron protectors of the twin kingdoms in that region. Ever met them?”

Nana shook her head, but she vaguely recalled what he was talking about. The twin kingdoms were well known for being hospitable to magic, embracing it as a part of their own culture.

“Well. He turned out to be something of a prodigy, to the surprise of no one,” Zane continued. “And then they went and had me. I was… less what they wanted. I didn’t have all the talent that he did and I didn’t really tend to get along with the other young wizards. I was never allowed to go far from the guild, the really interesting assignments being given to the more promising students.”

“Assignments? I thought wizards were more… free roaming.”

“Some are, once they finish their training,” he said. “Others are more scholarly, I guess. And this was still only a handful of families. There are plenty of wizard bloodlines that live outside the guild. But I just never really fit in the way I was supposed to. I think I freaked the others out, always using new spells to break stuff or stealing forbidden books to learn dark magic. The elders warned me if I kept dabbling in stuff like that they’d throw me out.”

Nana listened with wide eyes, not daring to miss a word. Zane went on. “I was convinced that ‘true freedom’ was nothing they could offer me. I told myself the only way to really become great was by learning dark magic, pursuing evil. Everyone at the guild hated me. They shunned me. I never had any friends, for a good reason. I hated them right back. 

“I was so lost for so long. The only person who ever had any faith in me was my brother, and I hated him too. He was exactly what everyone else wanted. And I could never be that. So one day, I tried to cast an ancient and powerful dark spell. It… was supposed to kill him, tie his soul to this cursed wolf relic thing. I was caught before I could finish and that was it for me. They took my wand and destroyed it and forced me out. It was all a huge secret, too- my parents didn’t want the whole guild to know. Think of the embarrassment.”

“So… your brother didn’t know?”

“Garroth figured it out sooner or later,” he said. “But for the longest time he just thought I’d gone missing, like everyone else. I was out on my own for a while, trying to find somewhere I belonged. I had so much resentment for the guild, I wanted to do anything I could to go against what they stood for. I found a powerful evil sorcerer, corrupted for years by dark magic. I joined him. Stood by his side as his assistant. I guess you probably heard about the Demon Warlock?”

Nana stared.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, still avoiding looking her in the eye. “That was my life for years. He did despicable things, and I relentlessly followed him. It wasn’t until it was too late that I saw how trapped I was. My life- my very existence- was completely at his mercy. I didn’t own myself anymore. But I still thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was higher than the guild.

“Well… you know the story. A lot of information came to light in the twin kingdoms and things sort of went insane for a while. My brother got involved. When worst came to worst, and he had every right to take me out for good right then and there, he saved my life. He chose to spare me. I found myself at a crossroads, stuck between two choices. I could either save the Demon Warlock or be his defeat. And though I wanted to hate Garroth as much as I did… he still loved me, after everything I did.”

“It was  _ you _ ? YOU were the one who defeated the warlock, not the princess?”

“Sort of,” he said. “I helped her. But it was still my spell that landed the mark. I wasn’t really sure what to do after that. I couldn’t imagine they’d want me around and I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Again. So I turned my life around. Instead of settling in one place, I started to travel. I picked up a sort of… hobby. I looked for wizards like me, people who didn’t belong or were starting to believe the same lies I did. I brought them to the guild, knowing Garroth and his friends would be willing to teach them. I wanted to give them what I never had. Apparently I didn’t go unnoticed. Sometimes I would help people I came across, restocking food, fighting off thieves. I tried to stay anonymous.”

“Well, you succeeded,” Nana said, thinking back to the witches back at the guild talking about the mystery savior. “That was you too, wasn’t it? The wizard vigilante showing up in all the kingdoms.”

“Yep,” he admitted. “I felt like I had years and years to make up for. All that time working for the wrong side. I never really had an endgoal or a destination in mind. I just travel and look for where I’m needed.”

Nana hugged her knees, smiling softly across the fire at Zane. “That’s so cool,” she said. “I think you’ve more than redeemed yourself. What makes you think your brother doesn’t want to see you?”

“I tried to kill him,” Zane reminded her, frowning at the wall. “And… I sort of stole from him.”

“How so?”

Zane tapped the stick by his feet. “When we were growing up, him and a very select few were taught a very specific type of magic that they weren’t allowed to share with anyone else. Most wands are super refined and created specifically for children when they’re born, but there’s a type of tree- the autumnwood tree- that has branches that can be turned into wands on their own. He was taught the way to connect yourself to it, to channel your magic through it like any normal wand. There was this one day I was really upset for whatever reason, and he sat down and taught it to me where nobody else saw. He trusted me with it. So when they destroyed my wand I grew up with and I was out on my own, I tracked down an autumnwood tree and picked part of it off for myself. I used the magic he trusted me with to cause pain and suffering. That, plus what I spent years doing- I mean, would  _ you  _ want to associate with me again?”

“I am now, aren’t I?” Nana said, frowning. Zane finally looked up at her, at her eyes instead of the floor.

“What about the crystal?” she asked, nodding at his bag. “You said you were looking for it too.”

“That’s… sort of what I was getting to,” Zane said. “Esmond was one of the founders of the wizard’s guild, passing down that gem as a powerful heirloom until it was destroyed. His bloodline continued without it, and if it had stayed intact, it would be Garroth’s now. Garroth is who it rightfully belongs to. I thought… maybe I could make everything up to him by finding it for him.”

Nana let this settle in, letting Zane’s story run around in her head. So he really had been through a good deal of change in his life. He’d faced plenty of darkness before he got to where he was now.

“If your brother is really how you describe him,” she finally decided, “then you really won’t need to bring him a gift. He’d want to see you anyway.”

“I can’t just go empty-handed,” Zane said quietly. “Not after everything.”

The fire was beginning to fade, the orange light growing smaller as they sat there. 

“I was right, though,” Nana said, sitting on her knees. Zane looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.

“You do have goodness in your soul. Lots of it.”

Zane rolled his eyes, but she didn’t miss the smile he was trying to force down. “I wouldn’t take that from anyone if it wasn’t you,” he said, rolling back over to restoke the fire. Nana beamed.

She looked up, noticing that Teony was on her way over. Her eyes traveled down, noticing the silver necklace dangling from her mouth. Teony dropped it at Zane’s feet, and he turned around to look up at her.

“I thought you might could use that,” she said. “For the ring of love.”

Nana looked at Zane, who had turned to look at her. They both looked at Teony.

“But that’s all you have left of your family,” Nana said.

“I’ll see them again some day,” she said firmly. “And I want you to see yours again too. Both of you.”

Nana covered her mouth, feeling tears forming in her eyes yet again. She jumped up, running across the cave to hug Teony tightly. 

“Thank you,” Zane said, still sitting by the fire. “That… genuinely means a lot.”

“Do you think it’ll work?” she asked. Nana let go, bending down and taking the circlet off the ground. Zane stood, taking the staff from before from where it was leaning against the wall. Nana pulled her shard of the crystal out of her bag, and came to join Zane to compare the sizes.

The second the three items came within a foot of each other, all three began to glow with a shimmering white light. Nana looked up gleefully, her face illuminated by the light. Zane met her eyes with a real, hopeful smile.

“I think it will,” he whispered.


	7. chapter 7

~   
  


While Zane worked on connecting the pieces, Nana and Teony went outside to look over the mountains again. The skyline looked odd with the absence of the tallest ice spire, the further away mountains now visible.

Nana spun around when she heard footsteps, and saw Zane emerging from the cave.

He held the finished product out to her, shining in the sunlight.

The long lavender staff was complete now with a twisty silver sort of basket, shrunk down and rearranged to fit the top. Nestled within the silver design, the crystal shard glowed. Maybe it was just the light, but the green fire seemed to be a tad more orange.

Nana took the wand in her hands, holding it out in front of her. She expected it to be heavy, but it seemed to fit surprisingly well in her grasp, reaching all the way from her eye level to the tops of her boots. 

“The wand of light,” Teony said, watching it glimmer. “After everyone said it wasn’t real. Here it is.”

“We need to make sure it works somehow,” Nana said, looking around. What could possibly be the right way to test it out?

Her eyes finally landed on Teony.

“You don’t- you don’t think-?” Teony stammered, looking from Nana to the wand and back.

“We can find out,” Nana offered, coming to stand in front of her. Zane backed away, pulling Celestia with him. Teony stared at the wand, cautiously taking a step back.

Nana took a breath, trying to focus and steady her pounding heart. She closed her eyes, thinking of speaking to the wand.

“Break the spell. Turn Teony back to how she once was.”

Her eyes opened when the crystal began to glow. She watched, holding the wand out in front of her as what looked like a shower of sparks rained out of the wand like water from a fountain, landing on and all around Teony as she, too, began to glow. Nana took a step back as Teony began to float into the air slightly, looking around in alarm as her hooves left the ground and she began to fade into a substance of pure light.

For a moment, Nana could only squint at the shining ball of light before them, like a second, sparkling sun.

Then, she spotted a human silhouette in the brightness. The light faded, and the real, human Teony touched down on the ground.

Nana dropped the wand beside her, gaping. Teony’s dark brown hair hung straight and silky over a simple yellow dress, her skin the same deep brown that her coat had been. When she looked up, her black eyes sparkled the same way they had when Nana first saw them.

“It worked,” she breathed, a grin breaking across her face. Before Nana could even act first, she rushed toward her, and the two of them hugged as two humans for the first time. Nana laughed, breaking away.

“How does it feel?”

“It’s actually kind of odd!” Teony giggled, stepping back and looking down at her boots underneath her skirt. “Being upright like this after being a  _ horse _ for years! And wearing clothes! I was worried about that!”

“Well it looks like the wand works really well then!”

They both grinned, turning to Zane. “Thank you, too,” Teony gushed, running up to him. “For helping us for so long. And putting it together.”

“You know it was mostly her,” he said, pointing at Nana, but he still smiled.

“So what now?” Teony asked, brightly, leaning down to pet Celestia with her new (or, technically old) hands.

Nana looked to the sky. The wand was right there, in her hand.

Which meant there was only one step left.

“Now we go to Damien,” she said. “And save my family.”

Teony’s expression suddenly shifted, and she grimaced, looking back at Nana. “There’s just one little problem,” she said softly. Nana felt like her stomach was dissolving when she realized what Teony meant.

“You don’t have wings anymore,” she groaned. Why hadn’t she thought that far?? She easily could have waited, or maybe tested the wand on something else.

Zane put a hand to his mouth, thinking. Nana stared at the ground. Somewhere out over the mountains, she could hear birds calling out to each other.

“But maybe I do,” she whispered. The others looked at her in mild confusion.

“Witches and wizards can sprout wings, right?” she said, her mind already moving a million miles an hour. “Lucinda said some magics-users can too. How can we find out?”

“No harm in trying I guess,” Zane said, holding his hands out to both of them. “You’re both already essentially part animal anyway. Maybe just try tapping into that.”

Nana withheld the urge to remind him cats can’t fly, instead turning to Teony, who was biting her lower lip nervously.

“I don’t know about flying as a human,” she said. 

“You’re already a natural,” Nana assured her. “After that ice cavern, I feel like you can handle anything.”

Teony shrugged. “We’ll see.” 

Zane attempted to talk them through it, describing focusing on magic already inside of you and channeling it to your back. He described how very young wizard children who have very little control over their magic had a tendency to sprout their wings at a very early age, an expression of magic that took the least mental control. Magic, he reminded them, is a supernatural connection to nature. It was just a matter of making a piece of it exterior.

Nana thought hard about what it had felt like to make all the kitchen utensils fly. She was a witch. She could do this.

“...and- oh,” Zane suddenly cut off, and Nana looked up. She felt something weighing on her back.

She spun around, trying to see. She laughed out loud. Right there, growing out of her back like a real bird, were two fluffy, feathery pale pink and white wings like some sort of exotic bird she’d only seen in pictures. She gave them an experimental flap, gasping when they did.

She flapped a few times, rising into the air. She felt incredibly off-balanced, but she whooped as she soared through the air, narrowly avoiding the side of the mountain. She finally skidded across the ground, landing un-gracefully at Teony’s feet.

“I think I got it!” she chirped. Teony laughed.

“Maybe you can do the flying for both of us,” she said. “I don’t think we have enough time to stand here all day waiting for me to get it.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Nana stood up, looking at Zane. He seemed a little resigned, pulling his bag up over his shoulder.

“I guess this is where we split then.”

The temporary elation from sprouting wings faded, and Nana’s smile slipped away. He was right. They had put together the wand, and he had gotten his piece of the crystal. 

It was time for him to leave.

“Right,” Nana said, nodding slowly. “We did say that.”

After a few minutes, Zane had gotten all his things together, mounted his skeleton horse, and Teony and Nana walked him down to the base of the mountain. When they finally reached the point where it wouldn’t make sense for them to keep following him, they stopped.

Nana realized she genuinely didn’t want him to ride away. Not only had she gotten to know him so much better over the past couple days… but once again, something about specifically him just stuck in her mind.

She wouldn’t find anyone else like him.

“You two have to promise to be safe,” he said, facing the skeleton horse in a new direction. “You… think you’ll be ok on your own?”

“We promise. We won’t make it any more dangerous than it needs to be,” Teony said, taking Celestia from his lap. She hadn’t quite seemed to understand yet that Zane was leaving for good, and she dog-smiled up at him with her tongue sticking out.

“And, Nana?”

Nana looked up, looking again at Zane’s eyes. She hadn’t really noticed before how much they resembled the clear sky behind him.

“Honestly… people made fun of me growing up a lot too, for liking fairytales,” he said, shifting in his saddle. “I liked reading about the princesses who went on adventures. It was kind of amazing to actually meet one.”

Nana felt warmth flowing through her veins again, but this time it didn’t have anything to do with magic. “I guess we’ll just have to meet again,” she said, giving him one last smile. “Tell Garroth I said hi.”

Unsure of what else to say, Zane nodded. He began to trot away, looking back at them as he went. “See you.”

“Bye.”

And with that, he was gone.

Nana felt her feathered wings dragging at her feet, Celestia barking at Zane’s retreating back. 

“Let’s go, Nana,” Teony urged her after a moment. “We don’t have all day.”

Nana shook herself out of it, thinking about her family back home. The reason they were doing all of this in the first place. “Right, yes, yeah,” she said, picking her wings back up and taking a deep breath. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Teony muttered, eyeing the wings.

And within minutes, they were in the air. 

Teony screamed, clinging to Nana’s arms with one arm and clutching Celestia with the other as they soared over the frozen wastelands of the mountainside. Her legs dangled over nothingness as Nana flapped, looking to the horizon with determination.

“Can- can you try not to bounce so much?” Teony called fearfully, clutching somehow tighter than she already had been.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights,” Nana yelled back down at her. Against what was probably better judgement, she’d reached cloud level again, eager to fly through them like she had before. “After being a pegasus for six years?”

“You never had to SWING FROM MY LEGS!”

“I’m holding on to you, too!”

“Are you?? I couldn’t tell!!”

Nana laughed, readjusting her grip so that she had a more secure grasp on Teony’s arm. In Teony’s arm, Celestia yapped at the passing birds below. Nana tried to fly as smoothly as possible, but you can only do so much when you’ve never actually used wings before.

“It does feel cool, doesn’t it?” Teony finally said.

“Flying?”

“Flying.”

“ _ Absolutely _ .” 

Teony laughed from below her, her voice still shaking ever so slightly.

After another minute or so, though, she called out again, but this time with panic.

“Nana- Nana I think he’s behind us!”

Nana flapped hard, whirling around in the air to look back. Sure enough, and to her utter horror, the unmistakable silhouette of a man riding a griffin was approaching at a rapid pace. The long, glowing staff came into view, a beam of light shooting directly at them.

Nana hoisted Teony into the air, bringing her as high as possible before launching further into the cloudline to dodge as the beam shot underneath where they had been seconds ago. She looked over her shoulder, seeing that he was only approaching faster, the griffin zooming through the air with much more speed and practice than Nana currently had.

All they could do was keep moving.

Her breath was coming in short gasps as she propelled herself forward as fast as she could, zig-zagging in a way she hoped would throw Damien off or at the very least would cause him to miss. It accomplished a little, the beams of icy green light barely grazing her skin every couple seconds. Teony gasped, pulling her legs up quickly as one went flying underneath her.

Damien suddenly appeared on the Nana’s right, and she dove, flinging herself and Teony out of his way as he yelled out and shot another beam at them. It missed, instead hitting a tall rock. It split the rock clean in two, sending the halves crumbling along with the snow that had been on top of it. 

Nana and Damien began to weave through the spires, Nana trying her best to keep Teony and Celestia out of the line of fire. Every so often Damien would catch up, and Nana would loop around, spiking up or down to get as far away as possible. He continued to blast destructive beams, breaking apart the mountainsides they zoomed through.

“You can’t run forever, princess!” Damien screamed, flinging another beam at them. Nana veered right, but it hit too close to her arms, and Teony was blasted from her grip.

“TEONY!” she screamed, stopping dead in her line of flight. “NO!”

She dipped, dodging another attack from Damien and reaching for Teony’s flailing arms. But she was too late, Damien flying at her as she shot backwards away from him. Teony and Celestia plummeted towards the snow below.

Nana turned hurriedly, looking ahead to any kind of escape. But she cried out, seeing that he had driven them too low, and a snowy cliffside was rapidly approaching. And she was entirely too far down and flying too fast to be able to clear it.

She slammed full-force into the rocks, knocking backwards and plummeting towards the snow just like Teony had. Her bones and skull felt as if they’d been thoroughly shaken, the inside of her head buzzing as she fell.

The thick layer of snow on the ground was the only reason she survived at all, careening into the fluff like it was a heavy layer of padding. She tried hard to shake away the buzzing, regaining her senses as quickly as possible. She could hear the screech of the griffin, the flapping of wings.

The only thing she saw before Damien landed was Teony, a few feet away half-buried in the snow herself, unconscious or otherwise. Then the griffin slammed into the snow, and Nana scrambled backwards, hurrying to her feet to half run half trip away.

But there was nowhere to go. A solid wall of rock blocked her path. She stumbled to a halt with her back to the cliffside, spinning around to face Damien a few yards away. She poured all her mental capacity into re-forming her wings, them having disappeared before she even hit the ground.

But nothing happened. No matter how hard she strained, it didn’t want to work anymore. She felt frozen, a statue just like her parents.

Damien slid off the griffin, making his way towards her. Moving quickly, in a total panic, Nana lurched forward, snatching the wand of light out of the snow a few feet away. She hadn’t even noticed it fall out of her belt. She pointed it at Damien furiously, and it was his turn to stop abruptly.

“DESTROY HIM!” she yelled hoarsely. “KILL DAMIEN!”

Damien flinched, backing away quickly and throwing his hands up protectively. But the only thing that followed was silence.

He eventually glanced between his fingers at the wand, which didn’t react in the slightest to Nana’s command. She felt the last thread of control she had on the situation deteriorating, and she thrust it forward again.

“K-Kill him!”

Still nothing. Not even a tiny spark.

Nana’s arms dropped slightly, and she stared at the gem shard on top of the wand. The small green fire still glowed there, just as before. A few yards away, Damien began to cackle, his previous cowering forgotten.

“It doesn’t even work,” he said, straightening up and grinning triumphantly. “Ha _ HA _ . So much for the almighty mythical wand of light, huh, your highness? Did you REALLY think you could take me out that easily?”

Nana’s slow moving thought process could hardly accept what was happening, though she did process that  _ he  _ clearly expected it to, judging by how he reacted when she pointed it at him. But it didn’t matter. It was as if the collision with the cliffside had knocked the magic straight out of her.

And along with it, any hope she had of winning this fight.

She felt numb, as empty and useless as the staff in her hand. They had come so far. And it had all been for nothing.

There was only one thing she could think to do that could possibly save her family, the thing she’d been running away from this whole time.

“Ok,” she said, flat and without inflection. “You win.”

“What was that?”

“I’ll marry you. So you’ll undo the spell.”

Damien laughed, twirling his own staff around in his hand like he had upon their first meeting. “Well, I suppose they all want me sooner or later,” he said amusedly, chuckling to himself. Nana stared at the snow, her arms hanging limply at her side as her head continued to buzz vaguely. It wasn’t the ending she’d wanted. But she knew when she’d been beaten.

“The problem is… I don’t want  _ you _ .”

Her eyes stayed on the snow for just a second longer. Then, his words fully processed, and she looked up, her confusion on her face. Damien sneered at her from where he stood.

“You’re such a pain, did you even hear yourself?” He made a stupid face, going up into a higher pitch to mock her voice. “ _ Destroy him, kill Damien _ ! BAH. Please. As if I’d have any interest in you now.”

He twirled the staff around, the tip erupting into green light again, and Nana’s arm jerked forward, the wand of light being pulled right out of her grasp. It flew through the air into Damien’s hand, and he began to twirl it too. Nana could hardly keep up with everything happening so quickly.

“Oh, for me? How thoughtful,” Damien drawled boredly, examining the wand. “Hate to break it to you, your freak-ness, but you’re just as disappointing as my other wives. I thought the girly thing was nice before, but… well. Now it just seems a bit childish.”

He tapped his chin, lost in thought as Nana stared at the wand in his hand. The thing she had spent all that time and effort creating, yanked away like it was nothing.

“Now what to do with you?” he wondered aloud. “Hmm…”

He took a few steps back, lifting his own staff as it began to glow. “Open,” he commanded, shooting a beam at the ground in front of Nana.

She scrambled backwards as the snow began to drop inward, the very ground disappearing. All around her in a circle, the ground began to fall away into a deep, dark pit that seemed to be creating itself out of nowhere, green fire licking away at the edges. The last of it fell away, leaving Nana standing on a fragile platform in the center, barely five feet wide.

Damien came to the edge, sending one of his favorite smug smirks down to where she stood. “Any last words?” he called.

Nana stared back, her mind empty, all strength having left her body. She had no fight left.

“Guess not!” Damien decided with a shrug. He took a few more steps back, shooting another bright light at the mountain of snow on top of the cliff. It all began to tumble down, making the cliffside and the ground rumble as it all started to avalanche. Damien turned on his heel, walking away purposefully. He climbed on his griffin and flew away as the snow continued to fall in large heaps to the ground below where Nana was.

She covered her face, running out of the way of some of it as it narrowly missed her and hit the ground- but there was entirely too much, and she didn’t have anywhere to run. Snow continued to smack into the ground, piling up and burying her, the avalanche completely overtaking the platform she stood on as well as the ground all around it. The avalanche kept coming, slamming, stifling, and Nana was crushed, buried, suffocated.

And then nothing.

When Teony finally started to come to, the first thing she processed was something wet sliding across her face.

She blinked, squinting against the dog tongue that was rapidly attacking her face. The world around her seemed so unnaturally bright and nonsensical for a moment as she lay there in the cold wet snow.

Then, she finally processed what had just happened. She pushed herself into a sitting position, Celestia falling off her chest into the snow. Teony looked around frantically, taking in the rocks, the cliffside, the pounding headache starting in her skull.

Then she saw the avalanche.

Celestia sprinted across the valley, hopping up onto one of the mounds near the bottom and began to bark, digging into it. She turned back at Teony, barking again.

Teony stood, brushing some snow off herself. “What’s… in there, girl?”

Celestia went right back to digging. It hit her.

“Nana?” she called to Celestia, the realization setting in with a sense of panic. “Is Nana under there?”

Celestia whined, still digging into the mountain of snow. Teony stumbled across the mounds, coming next to Celestia to dig into the snow herself with her hands. She dug and dug and dug, tossing handfuls of the stuff behind them, her whole arms going cold and numb.

They were barely making a dent.

She had just begun to start thinking through other ways that they might be able to dig her out when she suddenly heard the sound of galloping from behind. She spun around, and almost melted with relief.

A skeleton horse was speeding around the side of the mountain, Zane still riding on top. Within a minute, they were approaching, and Zane impatiently jumped off the still-running horse to sprint across the snow towards Teony.

“What happened?” he said, breathless. “I saw Damien chasing you. And I heard the avalanche.”

“Nana’s buried under there,” was all Teony managed before Zane was already knee-deep in the snow, digging.

After a minute of all three of them going at it, including Celestia, Zane paused to yank his wand out of his belt and point it at the snow. A jet of pure heat burst from it, melting a ring around him. He pointed it a few more places, turning chunks of the snow into dripping water, and then jumped right back in, digging with his hands.

“Why can’t you just do that with all of it?” Teony called from her side of the pile.

“I don’t want to risk burning Nana,” he called back.

So they continued like this for what could have been minutes, or hours. Teony completely lost track of how long she’d been digging her hands into the icy mush, or how much of the pile they’d actually managed to search. Every so often Zane would melt more of it, sending huge pieces of the snow mountain dripping away. Celestia had taken to tunneling deep into the snow on her own, appearing at the top and jumping back down.

It was when Teony had begun to lose all feeling in her upper body entirely that she heard Zane’s strangled gasp.

“She’s here! I found her!”

Teony abandoned the mound she had been wading through, running around to the other side of the giant pile where Celestia was barking like mad.

Just the tip of a black cat ear stuck out, along with the barely visible top of a pink-haired head.

All three of them worked at digging around her, pulling her out. Celestia went to licking the snow off Nana’s face as more of it came clear of the snow. Her skin was pale, tinted a blueish purple. When most of her upper half was clear of the snow, Zane and Teony took her arms, dragging her out completely.

Zane bent down, resting Nana’s head on his lap as Teony reached down to brush snow out of her hair. Zane’s hand drifted across Nana’s cheek.

“She’s freezing,” he whispered.

Teony looked at her friend, unconscious and frozen but breathing.

“I know where we can go,” she said.


	8. chapter 8

~

Hours later, they were back at the witch’s guild.

The sunlit bedroom in the east wing of the cloud castle was almost completely empty aside from a handful of people a few platforms up on the biggest landing. 

Nana was laid on one of the beds, still unconscious. Zane sat at the end of the bed, Teony leaning against one of the rails. Zoe, Nicole, and Sasha, all from before, hung around nearby, available without getting in the way.

Down below, Lucinda walked through the entrance, coming up the small staircase that led to the landing the bed was on.

“Anything yet?” she called softly as she approached. Teony caught her gaze, shaking her head.

They had been there for nearly an hour, not completely sure what to do next. No one knew for sure what the extent of the damage was, but she didn’t seem to have any especially urgent physical injuries, so the only thing left to do was wait.

“Do you think…” Nicole whispered, pulling a long, thin wand out of her pocket. “...we could maybe, speed things up a little?”

“Don’t you dare,” Zoe whispered back. “Lucinda said we want her to wake up on her own. No magic.”

At the end of Nana’s bed, Zane looked carefully at her face for any signs of waking up. The ghost of what might have been a pained expression crossed her face, but it was nothing she hadn’t already been doing.

Zane couldn’t help but be frustrated with himself. He thought the real danger would have been when she went to go find Damien herself, he hadn’t even stopped to consider Damien might find  _ her  _ the second he was out of reach. If he had just gone with them a little longer he might have been able to do more.

Once again, people he cared about were having to pay for his mistakes.

His hand slowly drifted across the quilt, coming to rest on top of Nana’s. It was still just as ice cold as before, but a hint of warmth had returned to it. Zane felt the tiniest spark of something.

Hope.

“Please wake up,” he whispered, quiet enough that it was just for her. He had only known this girl for three days. But a lot can happen in three days, and he already felt such an intense connection to her that he’d definitely never felt with anyone else.

He tried to deny it, but maybe it wasn’t her that needed him.

“Please.”

To his surprise, on his second word, her head turned. Everyone in the vicinity spun around to look as Nana’s eyes opened, squinting and blinking in the light flowing through all the windows and balconies. Still waking up, her eyes fell on Zane.

“...Zane?”

A million emotions shot through him all at once, and he thought to maybe ask how she felt, or what she needed, or what happened, but when her arm shakily reached out in his direction, he took her hand and tried to focus on one thing.

“I’m here,” he said quietly.

Nana, still lying on the stack of pillows they had put on the bed, tried to regain a coherent train of thought while her head was still buzzing madly like it had been before. Her body felt limp and sore.

She tried to shake away the mental cobwebs, focusing on the people around her. Zane had come back. Teony was ok, and there was Celestia, in the arms of Sasha over by the balcony.

Her eyes drifted past the balcony to the sky behind it, and she saw the orange light of a sunset beginning to appear. Her eyes widened.

“It’s almost sunset,” she said, her voice coming out quiet and croaky. She pushed herself up, having to use way more strength than usual to shove herself off the bed into a standing position.

Almost immediately, her head buzzed even louder and her vision began to spot wildly. She stumbled, her balance completely thrown off as she tilted backwards. Zane caught her, carefully holding her upright as she blinked away the spots.

“Nggh,” she grumbled. Zane carefully let go, leaving her hand clutching one of the bedposts. “Careful,” he said, backing away.

She looked at the start of the sunset again, feeling like the world was spinning around her for a different reason. “We’re almost out of time.”

“There was nothing you could have done,” Teony said, coming around to stand by her. “You were stuck in the snow for so long. If Zane hadn’t come back when he did we might not have gotten you out at all.”

Nana looked away from the balcony, frowning as her brain continued to work further. “Wait… how  _ did  _ we get back here?”

She looked quizzically at Zane, who looked at Teony. Teony shrugged, and closed her eyes, turning her back to Nana.

Two long dark feathered wings expanded out of nowhere, and Nana’s mouth fell open. They were nearly identical to the ones she had before, almost as if they’d never left.

“Turns out a little bit of pegasus stuck around,” she said, turning back around with a smile. “I just copied what you did. Zane carried you and I carried Celestia.”

“Almost didn’t let him in,” Nicole said, shaking her head. “Until we saw who he was with. It’s still probably a good idea not to let this spread to the wizards’ guild. I think he’s still technically banished.”

“There, not here,” Lucinda said, coming to stand by the other witches. “Teony’s told us some. I wish she’d tell us more.”

“Thank you regardless,” Zane said. “I have always wanted to see the witches’ guild. I’d heard it was nicer than what we had.”

The witches all seemed visibly smug about his comment. Lucinda leaned against the wall, looking around at the crystal-like walls.

The last of the haziness finally faded from Nana’s head, and she felt grounded again.

“I need to get the wand of light,” she said, looking out over the setting sun.

“Damien took it,” Teony said from behind her. “The three days are pretty much up. I… don’t see how we could possibly get it back in time.”

Nana clenched her fists by her sides, the warmth of the sun shining on her face. For the first time in what felt like too long, the optimism and positivity she had been teaching herself for years began to resurface.

“No,” she said. “There’s hope. There’s always hope.”

When she turned back around, the group was all watching her curiously. 

“Lucinda?” she asked. “I think I’m going to have to ask for one more favor.” 

~

As the sunset began to glow over Damien’s palace, he sauntered through the halls twirling around his newly-claimed wand of light.

In the grand hall overlooking the foggy ocean, the three goblin ladies huddled over one of the several piles of treasures, polishing chalices, plates, and silverware as they found them. When Damien came up over the staircase, they jumped, working faster with their backs to him and their heads down.

“The mystical  _ wand of light _ ,” Damien muttered, holding it in both of his hands to look at it fully. The soft, shimmery lavender was in stark contrast to the dark stony room around it.

Curious, he lifted it up in one hand and pointed it with flair at the goblin ladies, lifting his other arm.

“Wand of light: make them work DOUBLE TIME!” he ordered, and they all flinched, holding the items they were polishing in front of their faces in defense.

Once again, there was no reaction from the wand at all. Damien scowled up at it, giving it another flourish. “I said  _ double time _ .”

The goblin ladies lowered their protective dinnerware, watching in confusion as Damien hit the wand on his knee a couple times.

“Make them work like dogs!” he ordered, attempting a third time to fling some kind of magical response at the ladies. Still nothing.

Damien looked over the wand one more time, disappointment and annoyance on his face. The tiny flame inside the crystal shard twinkled back at him.

“So much for being  _ super powerful, _ ” he decided, reeling back and tossing the wand high into the air, over the goblin ladies’ heads and into the tall pile of gold and gems. It hit a torn painting, sliding down and nearly disappearing into the collection of coins.

Damien began to walk away, shaking his head as he started back down the staircase. “Just another old wives’ tale.”

The ladies glanced at each other, half-heartedly returning to their polishing. After a minute or two, though, their eyes drifted back over to the wand, which was lying abandoned like a piece of junk surrounded by other objects having met the same fate. The crystal shard had come dislodged slightly, hanging on to the wand by a thread.

~

As the colors of the sunset began to stretch across the horizon, Zoe, Sasha, Nicole, and Teony all came out on the main balcony with their wings spread.

Teony admired her new wand that Lucinda had found for her, glittering expectantly at the tip, ready to be used.

Their goal was to make the day stretch as long as it possibly could, to keep the sunset bright and ongoing beyond what was natural. The more time they could buy Nana and Zane as they took on Damien, the better.

Nana came out to watch as the witches hopped off the balcony into the clouds one by one, Teony eagerly following behind. Teony had told Nana that she’d spent so much time at the guild only able to watch when the girls came out to do this, and now she could finally join them. She had no issue with staying behind to help while Nana and Zane went on alone.

All over the castle, more witches came out to join them, flapping through the glowing pinks and oranges and lavenders with their wands trailing out behind them. Soon, the sky was filled with ribbons of color, illuminating the sunset like stained glass.

“We’ll buy you as much time as we can,” Lucinda said, coming to stand next to Nana. “The slower we can make this sunset the longer your third day will be.”

“I haven’t really had the chance to thank you yet,” Nana said, turning to her as Zane began to walk their direction. “You… well,  _ all  _ of you, really- you’ve done so much for us. You don’t even know me.”

“I don’t have to know you, babe,” Lucinda said with a wink. “Any magics-user is family. And you’re just trying to get your family back.”

As Zane came to stand beside her, Lucinda’s gaze shifted to him. “I think any one of us could understand that.”

Zane watched the sunset and didn’t respond, and Nana shared a soft smile with Lucinda. She knew he understood. 

“Let’s not make them work any longer than they have to,” she said, nudging Zane as the feathery wings reappeared on her back. It felt so much easier than before, her strength and sense of purpose having been renewed. They had a new plan. And this time they weren’t splitting up.

A pair of shiny black raven’s wings appeared on Zane’s back, and the two of them headed for the edge of the balcony before leaping off, taking to the skies and flying through the color-shifting clouds as the diamond-walled guild disappeared behind them. 

They stayed mostly above the clouds when they could, only coming down to look at the surface below them to keep track of where they were. The more they could stay out of sight, the better. They didn’t want to give Damien any indication that they were on their way. For all he knew, Nana was dead under an avalanche and Zane was long gone.

Zane explained along the way that the reason he knew who Damien was to begin with was because the powerful sorcerer he had stolen his staff from was apparently the actual Demon Warlock himself, while Zane had been working for him. It was also how he came to know about Esmond’s crystal. Obviously, the Warlock had wanted the scepter back, but not bad enough to go after it himself. So he sent Zane.

Who, of course, was no match for Damien.

Though he hadn’t managed to retrieve the staff, he did manage to track down the palace Damien had created for himself. And he still had a decent memory of where it was. So Nana let him take the lead while she kept up behind him, mind wandering.

She knew she had to get her hands on the wand of light again. Things were going to be different this time.

She focused on her family, and how like Zane, she felt that she had a lot to make up for. And a lot to talk to them about.

And she held tight to the hope that she would be able to. Something about Zane’s story gave her a new idea. A new plan.

Her heart rate began to accelerate when they dipped below the clouds again, this time coming up over the jagged cliffside overlooking the icy sea. There was the rocky, marble-like dark green and blue castle balanced on the bluffs, like dirt-streaked ice. Though it was intimidating, she had to admit Damien did have a sense of style. Architectural flourishes were everywhere, including ornate archways and griffin shaped gargoyles. 

Not  _ her  _ style. But a style nonetheless.

Carefully, they dropped down towards one of the nearby bluffs out of view of the castle, avoiding any open archways or windows that they might have been sighted from. Nana flapped awkwardly as they reached the rocks, Zane touching down and having to guide her down himself. 

They wouldn’t be able to just come in through the front door, nor would they be able to fly. That would certainly make things easier and faster, but it wouldn’t necessarily give them the element of stealth.

Together, they approached a dropoff that led to a long, icy path that stretched and wound around the cliffside and under the castle. Nana looked down, the sunset shining off the ice like the frozen river back home.

“Yeah, that’s… definitely a drop,” she said, Zane rummaging through his bag behind her. When she turned around, she covered her mouth to hold in a gasp.

He was holding out to her a slightly shabby, but perfectly functional pair of ice skates, made from leather and a shiny black metal.

“I, uh… happened to have a pair of my own I picked up a while back,” he said. “I just duplicated them and shrank them a little. They’re not much but they’ll do the job.”

Nana felt a huge goofy smile overtaking her face and making her cheeks sore as she took the skates from him, looking at them in the fading light. In her eyes they weren’t anything other than perfect.

They both took a moment to strap their skates on, and Nana experimentally slid onto the small patch of ice just before the drop. They seemed to fit pretty well, and for the first time in three days, she felt back in her element.

Just like the river back home.

She glanced at Zane as he came to glide up next to her, joining her in looking down at the winding ice path through the rocks. He didn’t seem to have any balance issues, though she’d never heard him say anything about ice skating before.

“How experienced are you in-?” she began, but without another moment of hesitation, Zane jumped straight into the drop, coming down on the ice and speeding down the hill without a hitch.

Nana blinked after him. Guess he can.

She followed his lead, launching herself down the drop and picking up speed as she carefully tracked one foot in front of the other. Within a minute or two, she’d caught up to him on the slope, and they skated down side-by-side. 

They came up on a sharp turn just after the drop, and Nana bent down to pull her knees closer together, turning her skates in the direction of the turn. She shot around the bend, Zane coming along behind her. When the path straightened back out, he glided around past her, twisting around to skate backwards a few feet ahead with a smug sort of look.

“Since when have you been a skater?” Nana called over the wind as they came around a longer, gentler curve. Zane flipped back around, letting her catch up. 

“You gotta find something to do up in the northern mountain kingdom,” he said, shifting back and forth between his feet. “There isn’t  _ always  _ a fire to extinguish or a senile old lady trying to commit dog genocide.”

“A  _ what _ ?!”

“Long story. Another time,” he said, shaking his head and falling back behind her when the ice got narrower.

For a moment, the path split in two, and they shot alongside each other, up and down periodically as the two halves rose and fell with the cliffs. The ice began to widen as it came back together, rising up into another hill that almost created a tunnel in of itself, casting that green-blue icy glow all around the rocky walls. Nana and Zane both skated hard, propelling themselves uphill towards the peak.

When they came over the top, still gaining speed, Nana’s eyes shot from the icicles and stalactites coming from the ceiling to where the wide path ahead of them dropped suddenly, the ice falling over the edge of the rocks into a pit before continuing on the other side.

She didn’t slow down, glancing at Zane out of the corner of her eye to see if he’d stop to fly across.

He didn’t slow down either. Nana turned her head back to the gap, feeling a determined grin cross her face.

Together, they both shot towards the dropoff, kicking off the edge and sending themselves soaring through the air, no wings in sight.

Instinctually, Nana twisted around in the air, folding her arms over her chest and clicking her heels together as she spun. She could feel Zane watching her, but that was why she was giving into an axel anyway. She felt the sudden innate urge to show off.

When she came back around to face forward, she saw the rapidly-approaching ground beneath her, and she bent her knees in anticipation. She came down hard and clean on the ice, shooting onward. Zane came down behind her, not quite as expertly, regaining his balance after hitting right on the edge and sending a few chunks of ice falling into the gap.

They continued to glide down the decline, coming out around the open cliffside back under the brightly-lit sunset and under one of the castle archways. As the ice leveled out, Nana angled her skates so that she slowed down to look up at the towers and pathways rising up around them. The cliffside passageway appeared to have let them out just inside the castle walls, at the base of the rocks holding the main tower above the sea. An icy breeze blew through, making Nana shiver as she looked up to it.

Zane came to a stop next to her, squinting up at the top where a large open balcony and window were visible. A subtle sort of glow came from inside, just one corner of the stacks of riches visible.

“That looks like our best bet,” Zane guessed, pointing up at it.

Nana held her breath for a moment, reaching out with her magic like she had growing up to feel who was nearby without seeing them.

She caught onto what she was looking for soon enough. Damien was up there, without a doubt. They were going to have to be careful.

She gave a firm nod, and they headed for the rocks. After taking off their skates and a bit of climbing, they came up on a short staircase overlooking the cliffside. Further ahead, after a higher landing, a longer staircase led to the uppermost tower. Zane climbed onto the staircase, then helped Nana up after him. She looked over her shoulder at the rocks she’d dislodged climbing towards him- they fell and bounced off the cliffside, disappearing into the fog and falling endlessly towards the ground miles below.

She quickly refocused on Zane, and he pulled her up onto the stairs.

They had just made it to the large stone landing when a loud screech echoed from the sky, sending a shiver down Nana’s spine as she looked around frantically. It sounded too close and too familiar.

Zane saw it before Nana did, yelling as something came at her from behind. She suddenly felt something huge and heavy barrel into her, a claw digging into her back. She cried out, falling forward as heavy feathered brown and green wings flapped on top of her. It was the griffin, rearing back and screeching, preparing to strike her again.

Before she could turn over or fight back, Zane shot a bolt of whitehot fire at it, and it stumbled back with another loud screech. Nana scrambled across the landing, breathing heavily and feeling that a piece of her dress near her lower back had torn. Zane ran at the griffin again, firing off spells as it rushed back at him.

Nana frantically looked for a way to help, but all she saw were stairs, the castle walls, and the cliffside drop. She jumped to her feet when the griffin landed on top of Zane, screeching in his face with its sharp beak extended all the way, revealing the sharp teeth inside.

Zane grunted, using one hand to hold it back by the beck and the other to point his wand, which had a bright spell charging at the tip. “GO, NANA, GO!” he yelled. “The stairs!”

Nana hesitated, her eyes glued to the griffin’s razor sharp claws inches from Zane’s face.

“I’ll handle this! GO GET THE WAND!”

She tore her eyes away from the fight, nearly tripping over the first step as she began to sprint up the long, twisting staircase leading to the grand hall in the tower above. She tried to assure herself as she breathlessly ran that he knew what he was doing. He was giving her the chance to go on. He’d been in plenty of fights before.

She tried to distract herself from the sounds of whooshing spells and talons on stone and flesh, focusing on the archway above. She ignored the burning in her chest from running up stairs without taking a second to catch her breath. She finally came up over the top, slowing down for only a second to look around and check for any potential enemies.

So far, so good. Just a short entryway into the main room.

Even as she made her way towards the entrance, there were piles of gold coins and gemstones littering the floor. Broken expensive-looking vases and statues decorated the walls, long since forgotten. A painting that might once have been a real work of art hung crooked, the canvas torn to shreds.

Every step Nana took, the more she felt like she knew about Damien. He had such a greed for riches, power, beauty. But it was always so short lived. Once he had gotten what he wanted, no matter the lengths he’d gone to to get it, he always ended up throwing it away like trash.

That would have eventually been her, she realized. She found herself wondering what ever happened to his previous wives, and if the same would have become of her given time.

She came through the archway leading into the grand hall, looking at the huge open window overlooking the foggy sea and the piles and piles and rows of stolen or multiplied riches. Aside from more griffin stone statues lining the walls, she was alone in the room.

She felt an odd tugging in her gut, like an invisible string tied between her and something else she couldn’t see. She trusted her instincts, knowing that this was the connection between her and the wand.

It was somewhere in that room, buried in the treasure. She just had to find it.

She had only just begun to scan the gold for signs of lavender when she heard footsteps, the sound of boots coming towards her. She knew instantly that this was definitely not Zane safely escaping the griffin fight, the strange cold feeling in her stomach reforming like it always did when Damien got anywhere near her.

She sprinted for one of the piles, trying to make her footfalls as silent as possible. She bit her lip, diving behind one and crouching down as low as she could, desperately hoping to remain out of sight as Damien strode into the room.

She didn’t dare budge as she listened to his footsteps come down the center of the room, walking between the aisles of trophies. Nana held her breath, staring at the floor as he came entirely too close for comfort, and she was certain suddenly that her ears were visible above the top of the pile. If he even so much as turned his attention an inch in her direction, there’d be no missing them.

She just needed one second… just one chance to move forward to where another broken painting frame would conceal her completely. 

Very slowly and carefully, she turned her head to look over the stack of gemstones she had ducked behind to watch Damien in the center of the room. His eyes were on the ocean outside, the icy mountains in the distance framing the sunset. He seemed proud of himself, and she wondered how long it would take him to realize that the sunset was taking a good deal longer than usual.

Very slowly, her eyes still glued to Damien, she began to shift forward, sliding a foot silently across the cold stone floor to her new hiding spot. Any sudden movement could catch his attention. Any sound at all would give her away, and she wasn’t sure what she’d be able to do to defend herself. Last time they’d come face to face, she’d lost all ability to fight back whatsoever.

She needed to find that wand. She  _ knew  _ things would be different this time.

Carefully, still crouched, she took one step forward. The painting came between her and Damien, hiding her head completely.

But in her attempt to move silently, she didn’t put her other foot down fast enough. She wobbled for just one second, her hip grazing the pile of coins. She felt like her stomach did a flip inside her as one single orderly stack was knocked over, the sound of jingling coins hitting the floor.

Across the room, Damien’s head turned around. He narrowed his eyes at where the sound had come from.

Nana held perfectly still, not even daring to lower her arm. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest it was a miracle he couldn’t hear that, too.

Please just dismiss it as nothing. 

It was just the wind. Just an uneven stack.

It was  _ nothing. _

A sort of nausea overtook Nana as she heard his boots coming across the floor again in her direction, slowly as he looked over the pile. One of her cat ears flicked against her will when she heard a sound in the distance, the echo of the griffin screeching. Damien stopped too, and she prayed hard for a second that he would take more interest in that than her.

But then he continued to approach. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing for him to dismiss it.

It’s NOTHING.

She had just begun to try and figure out her odds of finding the wand before he could do anything to her, when the unmistakable sound of Zane crying out in pain mixed with the sound of griffin screeches. Nana’s eyes widened and her heart stopped. Damien finally turned away, his footsteps retreating towards the balcony.

Nana dared to poke her head around the side of the picture frame, watching him hurry to see what was going on below. As silently as she possibly could, Nana made her way to another pile on the other side of the room, attempting to stay hidden while also looking out to the landing where she’d left Zane fighting the griffin.

Far below the balcony, but not completely out of sight, Nana could see Zane with his back to the cliff drop, holding back the griffin with waves of bright purple light. He almost lost his standing on the very edge, but before he could fall backwards the black raven wings returned on his back and he shot into the air in an arc over the griffin. On his way over, he shot another blast of fiery light that exploded like fireworks on the griffin’s back.

“Ooh,” Damien hissed, watching Zane with a frown. “We simply can’t be having  _ that. _ ”

He pointed his staff down, and Nana covered her mouth to hold in a cry as an icy blast shot down. It blasted through one of Zane’s extended wings, sending him careening back down to the ground with a strangled yell. A smoking, bloody hole had been shot through the wing, black feathers falling all around him as he tried in vain to flap them again when the griffin lunged toward him.

His wand having been knocked across the landing and well out of his reach, all Zane could do was throw his arms up in front of him as the griffin slammed into him, knocking him over the edge and off the cliff, bloody black feathers drifting down after him.

For one moment, Nana watched the feathers disappear, again feeling just as frozen to the spot as her family back home.

Then, a sparkle just above her caught her eye.

Hardly daring to breathe, she lifted her head, looking at the long lavender staff on top of the pile less than a yard away from her.

On the balcony, Damien’s attention was still on the landing below. He disappeared down a staircase, hurrying toward the griffin, which was sniffing down after where Zane had fallen. The second he was gone, Nana jumped up, leaning across the pile of broken porcelain and gold to reach for the wand.

She picked one of her feet up off the ground, finally able to close her hand around it. For just one second, she felt the warmth return to her skin, seeming to flow straight through the wand into her body.

Then she turned the wand upright as she straightened back up, and before she could process that the top of it felt loose, the crystal shard came flying off with a soft  _ plink _ and flung through the air across the room.

Nana reacted on impulse, hopping over the pile and chasing the shard as it bounced across the floor onto the balcony.

It slid to the very edge, reflecting the light of the sunset as it teetered for just a moment.

And then it dropped, disappearing over the edge.

Nana skidded to a stop, staring in disbelief at where the shard had been seconds ago, easily within her reach now. But she was too slow.

The now incomplete wand of light was still in her hand, but all it was was a pretty stick with a silver ornament.

The sunset seemed harsh and unnatural, the breeze feeling too cold and dry for the time of day. Nana felt as if the light inside of herself had gone out, her new plan falling to pieces in front of her.

So close.

But not close enough.

Completely at a loss for what to turn to next- no more time, no more Zane, no more wand- Nana fell to her knees, sitting down on the balcony and facing the icy ocean far below where her last source of hope was sinking to the very bottom.


	9. chapter 9

Among the clouds far away, Nicole did one last loop around the biggest one she could find, painting it a dim shade of amber.

She flew over the top, feeling her stomach sink when she saw just how dark it had really gotten. The sky seemed to have lost every last speck of blue, halos of bright color emanating from the sun like no sunset she’d ever seen before. But it was ringed with remnants of the night sky, the colors overshadowed by passing time.

Zoe flapped across the sky towards her, watching it all worriedly. Most of the witches had paused, looking at each other unsure of whether to continue or not.

“I think we’ve given it all we can,” Zoe breathed, the strangely-lit colors reflecting in her eyes.

Nicole didn’t know what to say. She was right, there was nothing left.

You can only prevent the inevitability of time for so long.

Back at Damien’s castle, Nana’s head snapped up suddenly when she heard someone grunting nearby.

To her left, a hand appeared over the edge of the balcony.

And she knew exactly whose it was. She scrambled to her feet, running across the open balcony to look down at the rocky cliffside the balcony was sitting on top of. And there was Zane, scraped up but very much alive, clinging to the rocks for dear life.

Nana nearly cried with relief, dropping to her knees again to grab hold of his arm to pull him up. She took a few shaky steps back as he hoisted one of his legs up onto the surface, then she was able to pull the rest of him over. She let go as he rolled across, catching his breath.

“I thought you were gone for good,” Nana said, more like a pitchy whisper. A lump had formed in her throat.

Zane pushed himself to his feet, brushing rubble and dirt off his clothes and out of his hair. “Ice skating, rock climbing…” he muttered, wincing as he lightly touched a bleeding scrape on his forehead. “I think it’s safe to say I’ll be pretty sore tomorrow.”

She wanted to punch him for making light of the situation, but also desperately wanted to embrace him. Instead, she turned her attention to the almost-wand in her hand. She sniffled, holding it up for him to see.

“I messed up, Zane,” she whispered. “The shard fell off the edge. It’s in the ocean now. We’ll never get it back. I ruined  _ everything _ .”

Looking at the empty silver basket, Zane lightly took the wand from her and seemed to think for a moment. He turned his head slightly, looking down at the bag on his belt. He reached into it, pulling out the other shard, the one he had taken from the cavern. Nana stared at it, feeling one of her hands cover her mouth.

“You didn’t mess anything up,” Zane assured her softly, holding the shard up so that it caught the light. The orange and green flame glowed within, friendly and warm. “We have the rest.”

Nana stared as he slid the shard into place among the silver vines and tendrils, and it fit perfectly. The second it clicked into place, it began to sparkle just as it had before, the whole wand lighting up with a warm white light. It illuminated Zane as he held it out to Nana.

She took it. It felt familiar in her grasp.

“I guess we do,” she breathed, watching it shimmer.

And just like that, before either of them knew what was happening, it was encased in green light and shot out of her hand, soaring across the room.

They spun around just in time to see it land in Damien’s hand.

“You’re both so impossible to get RID of,” he spat, coming into the grand hall with the three goblin ladies hobbling close behind him. He handed the wand off to the closest one, continuing to walk angrily towards them. “I’m DONE with you, can’t you take a hint? Next time I kill you I need you to stay dead. I’ll have to think of new, more painful ways to end your lives. I don’t think the message took the first time.”

Zane, still bloody and exhausted, ran at Damien across the balcony as his arms erupted into black flames. Before he could get much closer, though, there was a streak of feathers and fur and the griffin shot out of the air for a second time, colliding into Zane and shoving him across the room, pinning him to the ground. The goblin ladies hurried out of the way, coming to stand between Nana on the balcony and Damien just inside the room.

Nana’s head whipped around the scene, her chest heaving. She could tell Zane was in pain, being held where he was unable to fight back. Damien cackled at her obvious sense of overwhelming, her frantic attempt at processing what needed to happen next.

Another sparkle caught her eye, but it was nothing in the piles of riches spread out behind Damien. It was a gold ring on one of the goblin ladies’ fingers.

Nana’s expression softened as her eyes traveled along all three of their ring fingers. From the one furthest from her holding the wand tightly, all three had matching gold bands.

Wedding rings.

It felt as if the last puzzle piece fell into place. Nana regained her composure, turning her attention away from everything else to the women before her.

“He was awful to you wasn’t he?” she asked, taking a step forward. The women took a step back, but looked up at her curiously. They didn’t seem to be able to speak.

She went on. “The more he had the less he wanted you. And he treated you terribly. You’ve been stuck here like this with him for a long time. There’s never been a way out. You were trapped.”

“You would have turned out just like them,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. “I wasn’t a bad husband, they were bad wives.”

He extended his hand for the wand, and the one holding it eyed it carefully. Nana took another step forward.

“I’ll give you a way out,” she said, her voice quiet, pleading. She stretched her own hand out, opening it. “This isn’t your ending. You can change things right now. Don’t give it to him. Give it to me.”

Damien frowned at her, like he couldn’t believe she was trying. “What? No. They know their place. Give it here.”

The woman holding the wand looked back and forth between the two hands being extended toward her, indecisive and confused. Nana still had their full attention, though, so she went right on.

“If I had the wand I could change things,” she said. “For you. For us. For everyone. Damien’s influence would be gone for good.”

“This is who they ARE now,” Damien said, shaking his head and thrusting his hand out again. “They know that. It’s all they’re capable of. They’ll never be anything more.”

Head down, the wife holding the wand took another step towards Damien and began to lift it towards his hand. She paused, though, looking at the floor.

“For everyone,” Nana whispered.

Damien looked down at the wand, unmoving and just out of his reach. Losing his patience, he moved to just grab it himself.

Before he could reach it, however, the wife pivoted on her foot and threw it full-force to Nana.

Nana ran forward, grabbing it out of the air. She closed both hands on the decorated staff, focusing every ounce of magic she had in her into what she was about to do before Damien could take it away again.

“For my people, my family, my friends,” she called, squeezing her eyes closed and picturing them all in her mind. “For everyone. REMOVE ALL OF DAMIEN’S SPELLS.”

She felt the warmth flowing through her fingers into the wand and saw the light- she opened her eyes to watch the shower of sparks expanding like a giant bubble from the crystal shard. It lit up the entire balcony, the walls, the room attached to it.

“KILL HER!” Damien screamed, thrusting out his own glowing staff. “RIP HER LIMB FROM LIMB!”

The glow from the wand expanded, forming a corona-like barrier between Nana and the beam coming from Damien’s staff. The sparkles floated through the air like tiny stars, or snowflakes. They seemed to reverse gravity everywhere they fell, making Nana’s hair float strangely. Damien’s magic only dimmed in comparison every second the ball of light around the wand grew, sparks flying off it like an ember.

Nana felt goosebumps shoot across her skin as she suddenly felt weightless- her boots lifted lightly off the ground, and she began to rise with the wand, encased in their own bubble of shining light. She felt like the sun, shimmering, sending rays in every direction.

Down below, the sparkles raced down Damien’s beam, encasing the green in shimmering white. He felt his hands begin to vibrate, the staff shaking as the wand of light’s power began to overtake it. He thrust it forward, one final attempt to possibly retaliate.

But his chance was up. He yelled as his staff heated up rapidly in his hands and he was unable to let go. He was overtaken by the expanding sparkling light.

Sensing the sudden change, the griffin shoved off of Zane, taking off into the air. But before it could get far at all, it began to glow with the same light the wand was emanating. With a shimmering flash, the griffin began to shrink. The wings disappeared, the beak and feathers and talons going right with them. The sparkles fell and the light faded- revealing a scrappy tomcat desperately trying to fly. It fell, landing back on Zane’s chest. Zane sat up, readjusting his jacket while picking the cat up by the scruff of its neck. He let go quickly when it hissed at him, and it scampered away.

Illuminated by the giant sphere of light, the three wives began to sparkle and grow. The bright glow surrounded them as the goblin-like features melted away, their limbs stretching out, their hair re-doing itself. After a moment, the glow faded, and they landed back on their feet, restored to how they were before Damien’s curse.

The three good-looking women gaped at each other, taking in the nice clothes, jewelry, and very  _ human  _ facial features. The red-headed woman laughed, admiring her embroidered black gown. Before she could say anything about it, though, what was happening in the center of the room caught her eye and she gasped, pointing.

Damien himself was glowing with the same sparkling light that had transformed the griffin and the women, his staff having been knocked to the floor far away. He was yelling and cursing like an angry child, everyone squinting through the bright glow to watch him try to somehow brush the sparkles off.

When they faded, the wives gasped and broke into laughter.

He had shrunk a solid foot and a half and lost almost all the muscle he’d had before. He might have been able to pass as being in his late twenties or thirties earlier, but now he had a distinctly middle-aged look to him as he hunched over, his clothes shabbier, a hint of unkempt facial hair on his chin. Whatever he’d done to preserve his youth before was long gone now.

For a moment, he sputtered in disbelief, looking himself over. Then he spotted his staff, which had been knocked across the room to where Zane was standing. Before he could even begin to run towards it, Zane snatched it up. The green seemed to be fading out of it, leaving behind only shades of silver.

“Yeah, this isn’t yours anymore,” Zane said, holding it away.

Above them, the giant star-like sphere of light was beginning to lower and dim, the sparkles dissipating into the air as Nana started to become visible again. 

But she’d changed, too.

Instead of the torn dress she’d been given from the guild, her outfit had somehow been transformed. The soft pink on top faded into a deep purple at the end of flowing sleeves, a ribbon in the familiar shade of magenta lacing through the middle. The outfit was complete with pale pink legging-like pants, a flowing purple skirt the same shade as the sleeves behind and around them. Though her boots remained the same, they seemed to have a new sort of shimmer to them. Her hair hung loose down her back, unbraided and blowing in the breeze.

Still holding the wand, she looked over herself in surprise and amazement. “A little unexpected,” she said with a grin. “But not unwelcome.”

Zane was staring as well, Damien watching behind him with a scowl. “How is- how did-?” he stuttered angrily, pointing at the wand, and the women, and Nana. “That wand was USELESS!”

“It  _ was _ ,” Nana explained, watching the shard twinkle. “But I’d seen it work before, so I had to figure out why it only worked  _ sometimes.  _ And honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t realize it sooner. This is the wand of light, a magical artifact that draws power from all things light. Of course it doesn’t work when used in hate. Zane, what’s the one thing in every fairytale that always seems to be more powerful than any other kind of magic?”

Zane blinked for a second, thinking. Then it dawned on him, and he shook his head with a smile. “Love, I guess.”

“Love,” Nana said, putting the tip of the staff down on the ground. “Like I said. We should have known. Kinda fitting, isn’t it?”

“I’d say so,” Zane said, crossing his arms with the other staff still in his hand. “It’s definitely your wand.”

“Guess that explains the costume change,” she decided, picking up the skirt to look closer at the fabric.

A low rumble began to buzz around them, the sounds of falling rocks and breaking glass echoing out from a distance. Nana looked up, watching as one of the towers of the castle began to splinter and crack, collapsing in on itself and falling away as the rest of the structure began to follow suit.

Right.  _ All  _ Damien’s spells.

Nana turned away from the cracking walls and the falling stone statues, looking to Zane. He nodded, understanding instantly, the black raven wings appearing on his back again. He flinched, and Nana remembered his injury. She sprouted her own wings, pointing the wand of light at him. “Heal,” she said.

Another flash of light. Another shower of sparkles. And Zane gave his wing an experimental flap, seeing the scar where the hole had once been.

“That’s…” he said, turning back to look at her, impressed. “Convenient.”

As the balcony they stood on began to rumble, and the air was filled with the sound of stone splashing into the sea, Nana ran to the three women standing next to each other.

“We really need to get out of here before this whole place comes down on us,” she said hurriedly. “You’re free now. Go.”

The women glanced at each other, then looked in the direction of Damien. “Thank you for all your help,” the redheaded woman said, turning and smiling at Nana. “But I think we got it from here.”

“We’ve got a bit of… unfinished business to take care of,” the darkest haired woman in blue said, sending an impish smirk Damien’s way. He finally caught on that they were talking about him, and he stumbled backwards as they all turned toward him.

“N-now wait a minute,” he said, backing away as the three of them began to walk menacingly towards him. “Don’t- don’t do anything hasty! Let’s talk. Let’s talk about it. Slow down ladies! We did- we did used to be  _ married,  _ didn’t we?”

Nana held back a laugh, leaving them to it. The rumbling continued as she ran to the edge of the balcony, taking a flying leap into the air and flapping her wings as she caught the wind beneath them. She looked over her shoulder, watching as Zane followed close behind her.

Together, the two of them flew over the water towards the mountains illuminated by the sunset as what was left of Damien’s power crumbled and fell into the ocean.


	10. chapter 10

~   
  


Miles and miles away, the mountain kingdom began to unfreeze.

The whole town square seemed to be illuminated with a warm sparkling light, the shimmery sparks dancing around the people and landing on their petrified skin. For a moment, everything was exactly how it was when Nana escaped that night, aside from the night having passed and the morning beginning to come over the horizon.

Then, the people began to move, the grey fading, everyone regaining control of their limbs and bodies. Ice skaters who had been frozen on the pond began to slide, off balance. Children who had been in the snow fell from where they stood, landing on top of each other in confusion.

On the edge of the ice, the king and queen and several others began to budge as well. It was as if the sparkles melted the stone off of them, the horses whinnying at each other and stomping as their riders attempted to regain balance. 

Nana’s parents completely unfroze, staring in awe at their normal flesh, looking over themselves and each other. Cheers began to rise up from the people, talking and yelling breaking out after days of silence.

The king and queen looked up at the rising sun, wondering what all they’d missed in three days’ time.

Back at the crumbling remains of Damien’s palace, the last tower broke off, splintering into pieces as it descended with a world-shaking splash off the cliffsides into the water.

On a floating chunk of rock and ice out on the water, Damien watched, pulling out his hair in anguish.

“It’s  _ gone _ ,” he wailed, staring at the barren rocks. “It’s all GONE.”

“Hey, you know who’s not gone?” a voice asked, and he turned half-heartedly to face the three women lounging on the other side of the floating chunk. “Us.”

“I advise you get to paddling if we want to get back to civilization,” the second one said, nodding at the long, broad piece of rock that had chipped off with them. 

“Double time,” the third one said with a wink. The three women giggled amongst themselves as Damien scowled at them.

“Who says  _ I  _ have to-”

“DOUBLE TIME!” The three of them yelled in unison.

Damien sighed, grumbling as he picked up the paddle-shaped wreckage and began to use it to push them through the water. The women looked ahead as they sailed, watching the sunrise and thinking about the homes that they hadn’t seen in so long.

Some of the day passed, and the palace did everything it could to return to a sense of normalcy.

But with half the village having been petrified for three days, not to mention the queen and king and several members of the royal family and the guard, the castle had been all but run by five or six young children for a while.

Needless to say everyone was happy to see the whole family return.

Though as the queen and king made their way through the grand hall towards the large staircase, illuminated by the huge window at the top, they realized that they were still missing one.

And that’s when they heard the sound of flapping wings, too big to be any normal bird.

They spun around, seeing the light coming from the large open doors being cut by the long shadow of someone with huge feathered wings landing just outside. The queen gasped, covering her mouth as Nana stood up fully, folding the wings away and out of sight.

Before Nana could really wonder what to do next, her parents began to race across the hall towards her, and she couldn’t help but run to them as well. They wrapped their arms around her and she hugged them back, tight. After three long days of trying so hard to get them back, this was all she wanted. It was all she needed.

“Those… wings…” her mother said, muffled in Nana’s hair.

“Yeah,” Nana said, her own face buried in her parent’s embrace. “You two have sort of missed a few things.”

They finally broke away, standing back to look at her. They gaped at the wand, which she had forgotten she was even holding.

Nana’s mother shook her head, trying to organize her thoughts. She finally looked up at Nana, eyes wide. “And… Damien?”

“We got rid of all his magic,” Nana said. “He won’t be bothering us or anyone else again. Trust me.”

“We should have,” the king muttered, and Nana turned to look at him, making a nearly identical questioning expression as her mother.

“...should have what?”

“Trusted you sooner,” he said, shaking his head. “We are… inexperienced when it comes to witchcraft. Magic has never been anything we prioritize. When we were told you’d somehow been born with it, we… I suppose we thought we could just ignore it or hide it and it would go away. We kept it a secret from you and maybe if we hadn’t, none of this would have happened. I believe we owe you an apology.”

Nana felt stunned for a moment, taking a second to let his words sink in. Her mother raised her eyebrows as Nana thought to herself.

“Three days as a statue gives you plenty of time to think,” the king said with an apologetic shrug.

Nana took a deep breath, trying to sift through her own thoughts and emotions. “I owe you an apology just as much,” she sighed. “The last conversation we had before I lost you was me yelling at you. I had no idea so many years of what I thought was just strictness was you trying to protect me. At least now I know where you were coming from.”

“Yes… but I suppose we could have been more understanding too,” the queen finally decided. “Your personality… your tendencies… they’re a part of who you are. And all you’ve done, to help us, to bring back the kingdom…”

Nana felt that warmth inside of her again, and she found that she was starting to get quite used to it. She smiled.

“I just think perhaps it’s time we started to actually… get to know you?” the queen said softly, almost like a question. “You’re our  _ daughter…  _ I suppose it’s long overdue.”

Nana’s smile stretched into a grin, and she reached down to take both of her parents hands. Up at the top of the staircase, a handful of her siblings had gathered curiously to see her return and to listen in. Her younger sisters stared avidly at her bright new outfit.

Together, Nana and her parents made their way up the stairs to join the rest of the family. She knew they had a long way to go, but she was ready and willing to do what she could to mend the rift.

~

Far away from the snowy mountains, but not too far, a certain blonde-haired blue-robed wizard sat down on top of a hill overlooking a snowy forest, pulling out a book and lighting a small fire in front of him.

It wasn’t often that Garroth had free time like this, and when he got it he wasn’t ever really sure what to do with it. So he took it as a chance to slow down and just enjoy something other than looking after the kingdom. In today’s case, that thing would be a good book.

But he had only gotten a page or so in when the sound of approaching hooves began to come from behind him, crunching in the snow.

Garroth withheld the urge to roll his eyes, turning around prepared to see someone from the palace looking for him or a lost traveler.

He froze where he was. What he wasn’t expecting was for it to be Zane.

He watched as the skeleton horse made its way through the trees, emerging from the forest cautiously with Zane riding on it. Zane was watching Garroth, too, his hood and scarf pulled up. Garroth’s eyes drifted from his brother’s face to the wand he was carrying- no longer a flimsy twig, but a long silver staff with a glowing crystal shard on top.

The horse stopped and Zane slid off, pulling the scarf over his mouth down.

“Hey,” he said. “Been a while.”

Garroth felt the corners of his mouth twist up slightly. “A year and a half, to be exact.”

“Has it… really been that long?”

Garroth looked back at the piece of a broken crystal topping Zane’s wand, his curiosity peaked by it. Zane followed his gaze, then shoved the wand out toward him. Garroth looked at him in surprise.

“This is… yours,” Zane said. “It’s a piece of Esmond’s crystal. What’s left of it. I would have come back sooner, but… after everything…”

Garroth caught on. He felt like he had to repay him.

“How’d you find it?” he asked, making no motion to reach out and take it but instead stepping closer to look at it. Zane continued to hold it out, seeming confused. But he explained.

“I’ve been trying to find it for a few months,” he said as Garroth examined the tiny green fire in the crystal. “I remembered what it looked like from… well. You know. But it wasn’t until recently that I sort of joined forces with someone and we found it together. A little less than a week ago. I figure I can’t really make up for all the lost time, but it’s a start. A peace offering. It’s yours.”

Garroth came around back in front of it, glancing down to check Zane’s belt. Just as he suspected, there was no autumnwood branch. He must have lost it in whatever insane journey he’d been on with this mystery other person. Garroth didn’t miss the scrapes on Zane’s face.

“Little bro,” he said, shaking his head and smiling softly. “You didn’t have to make any  _ peace offering _ . You’re my brother. I just wanted to see you again.”

Zane blinked. Clearly he wasn’t following. Garroth tried hard not to laugh at his frustrated expression.

“I just want to know what you’ve been up to this whole time!” he said, grinning at him. “Was that really you, that secret vigilante helping people everywhere? What happened after you disappeared that day? Where have you been living? What sort of stuff have you seen? People have been asking me about you, you know. All I’ve been able to tell them is that I missed you.”

Zane lowered the staff slightly, the tip of it coming to rest on the ground in the snowy grass.

“Come on Zane,” Garroth said, taking another step closer. “You can’t really have thought all this time you’d have to bring me some kind of rare gem to convince me to be your friend.”

Zane blinked again, half-heartedly offering it forward one last time. “It’s also a wizard heirloom,” he grumbled.

“ _ No, _ ” Garroth laughed, waving the wand aside to wrap his arms around Zane, hugging him. After a moment, Zane hugged him back.

When Garroth finally stepped away, he took Zane’s hand that was closed around the wand and pushed it back to him. “I’ve already got a perfectly good wand,” he said. “You take this one.”

“But-”

“I imagine you’ve probably forgotten, but  _ you’re  _ in the bloodline too,” Garroth reminded him. “Esmond’s crystal is just as much yours as it is mine.”

Zane stared at the ornate silver staff. “Are you sure?”

“Quite,” Garroth assured him. 

Zane lowered the wand, finally looking his brother fully in the eye. “I guess we do have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yes!” Garroth agreed. “Like, for example, who is this ‘we’ you were referring to before? That helped you find the crystal? Did you make a friend?”

Zane smiled sheepishly, and Garroth heard more footsteps coming from the woods behind the skeleton horse.

“You could say that,” Zane said. The figure emerged into the light.

Nana came out to stand next to Zane, grinning at Garroth and once again in her brightly colored magic clothes. She was a bright contrast against the white snow and the darker jewel tones that the brothers wore. Garroth’s mouth dropped open slightly, his eyes traveling from her ears to her hair to her clothes to the wand of light in her hand.

“This is, um, Nana,” Zane introduced. Garroth’s eyes were absolutely and completely stuck to Zane’s hand, which had just instinctively reached out to grab Nana’s. And she held it.

Something about the meif’wa girl seemed familiar, and Garroth couldn’t quite place it for a second. But then he looked back up at her, remembering from visits in the past why he knew who she was. A princess. A meif’wa. A witch. Zane’s friend.

“I… didn’t realize the royal family in the mountain kingdom had a magics-user,” was all he could think of to say. Nana laughed, which he could tell she did often.

“Neither did I!” she said. “It’s been an eventful week.”

After a few more minutes of introduction, clearing up some questions, and just general greeting, the three eventually just sat down around Garroth’s fire that he had completely forgotten about when Zane showed up. Among all the talking, explaining, laughing, and storytelling, Zane knew one thing for certain.

It was good to be home.

  
  


~~~

EPILOGUE

  
  


And home was where he would stay.

His brother having a considerable amount of influence over the wizards’ guild, along with a change in the way things were run over the years, Zane was allowed to return to the guild not as an outcast, but as a friend.

And across the land in the coldest corner of the mountains where the meif’wa people lived, given time, Princess Nana was able to share her experiences with her family and the kingdom itself, properly introducing the concept of magic and magics-users into the culture in hopes of being able to provide more guidance than she’d received. And in turn, her family came to know her better.

But over time, Nana soon felt her place wasn’t in the palace. And Zane knew he was always welcome at the guild, but he felt he had found himself elsewhere.

Nana, being seventh in line for the throne in her family, was free to break away from royal life, and Zane went back out into the world, continuing on the mission he’d unintentionally started a year and a half ago. Together, the two of them traveled, searching for magics-users and hidden secrets and lost magic anywhere that it could be found. And everyone in the land came to know of the witch and the wizard, bringing a message of hope with them everywhere they went.

Before long, they did what any good young couple did best. They got married.

And this is where we leave this story of love and hope, lost heirlooms having been recovered, families having been reunited, and two alike souls being brought together unexpectedly.

And as sure as the sunrise coming every morning, the two of them certainly lived happily ever after.


End file.
